Someone once said that a good writer, whether for children or adults, has one story, which s/he keeps telling in various disguised ways; the fantastic writer has two stories; and the genius has three. Shakespeare, for example, could write tragedies, comedies, and histories with equal brilliance. In the world of children’s books, you can count the geniuses on one hand. In the pieces in this section, we write about them all – the good writers, the terrific writers, and, yes, those geniuses.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Merriam-and-Mother-Goose.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 4/11/2001 Eve Merriam’s Inner City Nursery Rhymes Transcript In 1969, Eve Merriam published a collection of verse entitled, The Inner City Mother Goose. The book was a series of Mother Goose parodies of biting criticism of some our society’s most difficult problems; violence, racism, […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Books-for-Passover.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 4/6/2001 Books for Passover Transcript That’s Sarah Jessica Parker playing a roving reporter, and a young friend with the right answer to the all-important question that’s asked during the Passover Seder, from Shalom Sesame’s Passover video. Along with nearly a dozen other videos available […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Be-Kind-to-Animals-.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 4/4/2001 Be Kind to Animals Month Transcript The virtue of kindness was an important one at the turn of the 19th century and the subject of kindness to animals occurred frequently in children’s books. “It is almost inconceivable,” one critic notes, “that so many […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Hans-Christian-Anderson-.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 4/2/2001 Hans Christian Andersen Transcript It’s Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday today. He was born in the little Danish town of Odense, in 1805, the son of a washerwoman and a cobbler, the poorest of the poor in the town, though Andersen’s mother claimed that […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Youth-Art-Month-Van-Gogh.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 3/29/2001 Van Gogh’s Birthday Transcript Yesterday was the anniversary of Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday. The supremely difficult life of the Dutch painter — who was born in 1853 and died in 1890, when he was just 37 — has become inextricably linked with the […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Randolph-Caldecotts-Rollicking-Picture-Books.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 3/26/2001 Randolph Caldecott’s Picture Books Transcript Many people are familiar with Randolph Caldecott’s name because the Caldecott Medal, given annually to the most distinguished American picture book, is named for him, but the 16 picture books he illustrated are worth getting to know, too. […]
Author John Cech Air Date 3/23/2001 Peter Sis’s Madlenka Transcript March is National Umbrella Month, a time, as Chase’s Calendar of Events tells us, that is “dedicated to the use of and conversation about” that most useful of implements. Though she isn’t talking about umbrellas, per se, the small heroine of Madlenka, the latest picture […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Books-of-Trade.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 3/13/2005 Books of Trades Transcript What Do People Do all Day? is the title of a book by Richard Scarry published in 1968. It is a recent example of a long line of children’s books, which began appearing in the mid 18th century called […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Howard-Pyle.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 3/7/2001 Howard Pyle Transcript Way back in 1877, American children going through their latest issues of St. Nicholas Magazine discovered some little fables with illustrations quite different from those to which they were accustomed. These simple drawings had a strong, heavy line, and a […]
