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.
[siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Audio”][/siteorigin_widget] [siteorigin_widget class=”WP_Widget_Media_Image”][/siteorigin_widget] Leo@Fergusrules.com Transcript Each spring the local high school sends me a summer reading list, a thoughtful reminder that school vacation is just around the corner. The week after the bell rings, for the end of the year, my library welcomes a steady stream of students in a reluctant and increasing rush […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/The-Circus.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 7/5/2000 P. T. Barnum and the Circus Transcript July 5 is the birthday of P.T. Barnum, the man who in the 1870’s brought the American circus into its golden age. Over the next 50 years, the circus was one of the premier entertainment venues […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Amelias-Notebooks.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 6/30/2000 Amelia’s Notebooks Transcript There’s a wonderful series of books for girls ages 8 and up by Marissa Moss, about a kid named Amelia who keeps one of those black and white marbled notebooks. She records all the stuff that makes up a young […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Waiting-for-Harry-Potter.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 6/29/2000 Waiting for Harry Potter Transcript There are such things as Harmonic Convergences in the book world–when the forces–a fine book, an excited publisher, a receptive audience, and a favorable Zeitgeist–all vibrate together. Who would have guessed that Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s account of […]
In our ongoing series about children’s books that have mattered to people throughout their lives, we asked Mary Ann Eaverly, a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Florida whose specialty is archaic Greek sculpture, about her favorite children’s book, Gene Stratton-Porter’s Freckles.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/1st-Newberry-Award.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 6/27/2000 The First Newbery Award Transcript On June 27, 1922, at the annual American Library Association meetings in Detroit, Michigan, in a room filled to overflowing, the first Newbery Medal, for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published the preceeding year, […]
That music, from one of PBS’s longest-running and most popular series, “Mystery,” is accompanied by highly stylized drawings of fainting Edwardian dowagers and ingenues and their languid beaus, barely escaping the peculiar accidents occurring around them at their haunted garden party.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Louise-Bechtel-1-1.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 6/22/2000 Louise Bechtel Transcript On June 22, 1919, George Brett, president of Macmillan Publishing Company, called Louise Seaman Bechtel, an employee in the company’s Education Department, into his office. He was concerned about his newly established department for juvenile books, the first such department […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/A-Pretty-Little-Pocket-Book.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 6/19/2000 A Pretty Little Pocket Book Transcript On June 18, 1744, the following advertisement appeared in the London Penny Morning Post: [Published] According to [an] Act of Parliament: a Little Pretty Pocket Book, intended for the instruction and amusement of little Master Tommy and […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Barbara-Cooney.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 6/13/2000 Barbara Cooney Transcript This past March we lost one of the remarkable, gentle voices in modern American children’s books–the writer and artist Barbara Cooney, who died at the age of 83, after having published over a hundred books, many of them prize-winning works, […]