Tag: Rita Smith
The Pied Piper’s Anniversary
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Pied-Piper.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 7/24/2000 Pied Piper Transcript The Pied Piper of Hamelin, that wonderful narrative poem for children written by Robert Browning, was first published July 22, 1842. In Browning’s version of the legend, the town of Hamelin, was infested with rats: “Rats! They fought the dogs, […]
St. Nicholas in July
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Saint-Nicholas-1-1.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 7/18/2000 St. Nicholas in July Transcript As editor of the 19th century juvenile magazine, St. Nicholas, Mary Mapes Dodge wrote an essay outlining her editorial philosophy. Two ideas in particular standout in this essay. First is her assertion that an “ideal juvenile magazine must […]
P. T. Barnum and the Circus
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 […]
The First Newbery Award
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, […]
The Storyteller
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/The-Storyteller.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 6/23/2000 The Storyteller Transcript If you thought there was a familiar look to last month’s television movie of the Arabian Nights, you’d be right. The dazzling special effects were the work of the Henson studios that were founded by the late Jim Henson and […]
Louise Bechtel
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 […]
A Pretty Little Pocket Book
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 […]
Summer Camp 100 Years Ago
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Years-Ago-in-St-Nicholas.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 6/7/2000 Summer Camp 100 Years Ago Transcript “The hurried steps of the father descending the stairs were heard through the closed door. The son turned away to hide the working of his face and examined the pictures on the wall through a film of […]
St. Nicholas in May
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Saint-Nicholas.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 5/23/2000 St. Nicholas in May Transcript St. Nicholas was a popular American juvenile periodical that was issued monthly from November 1873 through March 1940. The May, 1900, issue opens with an essay by Theodore Roosevelt entitled, “What We Can Expect of the American Boy?” […]
Biography Day
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Biography-Day.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 5/16/2000 Biography Day Transcript In celebration of Biography Day, I am going to read from one of the first biographies of George Washington for young people, written by Mason L. Weems, first published in 1800. In this biography, Weems focused on the private rather […]