Puff the Magic Dragon
It’s Peter Yarrow’s birthday, and here’s Kevin Shortsleeve with the story of the singer-songwriter’s most famous creation, Puff the Magic Dragon.
Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 5/29/2001 Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Transcript Most people recognize the name Ian Fleming as the author of the original fourteen James Bond novels. But Fleming is also remembered for another work, the well-known children s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1921, when Fleming was twelve years old, […]
Bob Dylan
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Bob-Dylan.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 5/24/2001 Bob Dylan Transcript When people talk about Bob Dylan, Mother Goose does not usually enter the conversation. But it could be that there is an important connection between Dylan’s lyrics and the songs and stories of childhood. In 1991 he recorded This Old […]
Counting Out Rhymes
It’s springtime, and the playgrounds are finally un-thawed and ready for games. Here’s Kevin Shortsleeve with some thoughts about one of the ways kids choose up sides.
Walter de la Mare
Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 4/25/2001 Walter de la Mare Transcript Walter De la Mare was born in England in 1873. He was raised in a Victorian landscape of childhood that presented a dichotomy of poetic views. On the one side, there were the irreverent and humorous authors like Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, while […]
Eve Merriam’s Inner City Nursery Rhymes
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, […]
Robert Frost
Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 03/28/2001 Robert Frost Transcript One of America’s most beloved poets, Robert Frost, is unique in that he is one of the few, quote-unquote, “serious” poets of the twentieth century who was appreciated by both adults and children. In the nineteenth century, poets like Longfellow and Poe – writing in rhyming […]
The Afterlife of Edward Gorey
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Edward-Gorey-1-1.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 2/23/2001 The Afterlife of Edward Gorey Transcript Edward Gorey confessed that he was afraid of being remembered only as a morbid Charles Adams type. In life, Gorey was much more than that – a voracious reader who could speak with authority on any number […]
Presidents’ Day
It’s Presidents’ Day, and Kevin Shortsleeve has some thoughts about how to make this holiday meaningful for kids today.