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/Sarah-Josepha-Hale.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 10/25/2000 Sarah Josepha Hale Transcript Sarah Josepha Hale was born on a New Hampshire farm in 1788. She operated a school for seven years before marrying a lawyer and giving birth to five children. Her husband died in 1822 and Hale became a writer […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Teen-Read-Week-1.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 10/16/2000 Teen Read Week Transcript It’s Teen Read Week, and one book that I’d urge you to somehow get into the hands of the teenagers in your life is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. He’s the son of Stephen […]
Today, Rita Smith remembers Edward Stratemeyer, who made the series book a standard fixture in every child’s library.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Louise-Fitzhugh.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 10/2/2000 Louise Fitzhugh Transcript It’s the birthday this week of Louise Fitzhugh, the author of one of the breakthrough books for children of the 1960s, Harriet the Spy. Harriet Welsch is an eleven-year-old budding writer, who makes her rounds every day after school, eavesdropping on […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/James-Thurbers-22Many-Moons22.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 9/28/2006 James Thurber’s “Many Moons” Transcript In 1944, Many Moons, a book written by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, won the Caldecott Award for the best American picture book for children. It was a story about a little princess who overindulged in […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Banned-Books.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 9/25/2000 Banned Book Week Transcript The American Library Association has designated September 23 through the 30th as Banned Book Week. That practice, as Rita Smith reminds us, has been with us for quite awhile. Pressure to remove certain books for children from library shelves […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Goldings-Lord-of-the-Flies.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 9/19/2000 William Golding Transcript Almost fifty years before “Survivor,” William Golding’s disturbing Lord of the Flies was published in 1954. It was much more reality-based and therefore much scarier than anything the networks might later fabricate for us. The novel was about what could […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Chicken-Little.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 9/14/2000 Chicken Little Transcript One hundred and sixty-six years ago this past weekend, a printer from Roxbury, Massachusetts, John Greene Chandler, made the biggest splash of his career with a little pamphlet entitled The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little. He probably distributed his version of […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Good-Manners-Month.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 9/13/2000 Good Manners Month Transcript September is Children’s Good Manners Month, and Rita Smith has a most polite rediscovery for us: September is Children’s Good Manners Month. I suppose that to children it seems like every month is Good Manners Month, considering how they […]
