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Author of the Month

R.L. Stine: He'll Give You Goosebumps
Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Ghosts, Halloween, Horror, October kids, Virginia Johnson
10/15/2009 - 8:44pm

Get the creepy crawlies with R. L. Stine. He's a master of conjuring things that go bump in the dark. Imagine you've just moved to the town of Dark Falls where you don't know anybody.

It's easy to make friends here-- but they're the wrong kind of friends, in Welcome to Dead House. The campers at Camp Nightmoon are disappearing one by one. Do you dare go on a special hike with strange Uncle Al in Welcome to Camp Nightmare?

Shel Silverstein
Arts and Artists, Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Humor, Music, Poetry, September kids
09/02/2009 - 7:11pm

By Sarah Amick, CRRL Intern

Shel Silverstein was a unique writer with many artistic talents. While generally best known for his poetry and literature for children, he was also a cartoonist, composer, lyricist, and folksinger. He was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. In the preface to her book entitled Shel Silverstein, Ruth K. MacDonald writes, "Shel Silverstein is admittedly not a great technical poet; he will not be remembered for the advances he has made in the rhyme, meter, diction, or form of his poetry, which children have come to love so much. What he has accomplished is bringing poetry-- perhaps more accurately described as light verse-- to children who would otherwise avoid it." I believe that Silverstein had made a huge impact on children's literature, and his poetry has undoubtedly influenced children of all ages.

In Step with Andrea Davis Pinkney
African American, Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Caldecott Honor, Civil Rights Movement, Civil War - U.S. -- fiction, Families, Music, Segregation, September kids, Slavery, Virginia Johnson
11/02/2009 - 8:15pm

Andrea Davis Pinkney's (September 25, 1963 -- ) books are full of the rhythms of the African-American community. Stroll down memory lane with Scat Cat Monroe as he follows the rise of Ella Fitzgerald from the small-town girl who liked to sing and dance on street corners to wowing the crowd at the Apollo Theatre when she was only seventeen, dressed in work boots and hand-me-downs.

Katherine Paterson's Healing Words
Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Bullies, China, Christianity, Christmas, Death, Families, Foster care, Historical Fiction, Imagination, Japan, Jealousy, Newbery Award, Nonconformists, October kids, Religion/Spirituality, Siblings, Vietnam War -- fiction, Virginia Johnson
10/29/2009 - 3:49pm

Best known for her Newbery Award-winning books, Jacob Have I Loved, as well as Newbery Honor winner, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson's very personal style of storytelling strikes nerves with her readers, who are able feel her characters' emotions, giving them practice for dealing with life's sorrows. What keeps her books from being simple studies in misery is her ability to find the humor and grace in any situation.

Mary Downing Hahn: Woman of Mysteries
Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Blended families, Bullies, December kids, Divorce, Ghosts, Mystery, Vietnam War, Virginia Johnson, World War II -- fiction
10/29/2009 - 3:43pm

When Mary Downing Hahn writes a book, she works along steadily until that magic moment when the characters develop their own voices. Whether it's a mean-mouthed boy who is hiding family secrets or a girl who is terrified of the ghostly presence haunting her small step-sister, this author's characters tell their own stories both believably and intriguingly.

The Timeless Stories of Jane Yolen
Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, California, Dragons, Fantasy, February kids, Folklore, Folktales, Holocaust (1933-1945) -- fiction, Picture Book, Vampires, Virginia Johnson
10/29/2009 - 3:43pm

She's been compared to Hans Christian Andersen and that clever fable maker Aesop. For children (and adults!) in today's world, her carefully crafted stories sing with a timeless rhythm and an honest truth. Her family's Russian-Jewish roots have given her the jumping-off place for many a tale (And Twelve Chinese Acrobats, Firebird, and Baba Yaga), but some stories seem to drawn from the heart of the world itself.

From the Mixed Up Files of E.L. Konigsburg
Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Bullies, Historical Fiction, Integration -- fiction, Loneliness, March kids, Middle Ages, New York City, Newbery Award, Newbery Honor, Nonconformists, Virginia Johnson
10/29/2009 - 3:39pm

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg has always loved reading. As a girl, she discovered the magic of The Secret Garden and learned about life in a middle-class English family from Mary Poppins. These stories became part of her childhood, and, as she relates in her excellent book of essays, TalkTalk: A Children's Author Speaks to Grown-ups, classic stories become a bridge between today's children and earlier generations.

What she was looking for as a child and did not find, was a reflection of her life in a Pennsylvania mill town. In classic books, the mothers were just that. The women in Elaine's neighborhood worked as maids for extra money. In classic tales, there were maids, but they were always on the sidelines, and the classroom rolls were filled with Smith's, Jones', Edwards', and the like. Where were the Ravinsky's, Machotka's, and Spinelli's?

Faith Ringgold: Stories in Stitches
1940s -- fiction, African American, Arts and Artists, Author Profiles, Autobiography and Biography, Caldecott Honor, Civil Rights Movement -- fiction, Families, New York City, October kids, Quilts, Underground Railroad, Virginia Johnson, Women
10/29/2009 - 3:36pm

Faith Ringgold is an artist who uses different materials to tell the stories that are important to her family and her people. Whether working with quilting squares, African masks, paint and brush, or her own words, Faith gives the rich colors and textures a life of their own. There's motion in her work, a striving upward and pushing at the edges of her world.