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October kids

Happy birthday to our favorite children's authors! Every month we celebrate those amazing writers and illustrators who call on their talents and life experiences to create books that kids love. Read on to learn more about their lives and livelihoods.

Authors by their birthday month: January -- February -- March -- April -- May -- June -- July -- August -- September -- October -- November -- December
Arna Bontemps Left a Rich Literary Legacy
1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Author profile, Author Profiles, Harlem Renaissance, Newbery Honor, October kids, Virginia Johnson, Kids Blog
10/06/2011 - 5:42pm
Arna Bontemps

A Solid Beginning

Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps was born on October 13, 1902, in Alexanderia, Louisiana, a child of middle class parents of mixed racial heritage--what is sometimes called Creole. His father, Paul Bismark Bontemps, was descended from French plantation owners living in Haiti and their slaves. After coming to the United States, the Bontemps family lived free in Louisiana for decades, and the many of the men worked as skilled brick and stone masons for generations.  In addition to working his trade, Arna’s father also played music with a popular band. Arna’s mother, Maria (pronounced Ma-rye-ah) Carolina Pembrooke was descended from an English planter and his Cherokee wife. Maria taught public school and enjoyed creating visual art.

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R.L. Stine: He'll Give You Goosebumps
Author Profiles, Ghosts, Halloween, October kids, Virginia Johnson, Kids Blog, Horror
10/05/2010 - 3:21pm

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?

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

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

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Jeanette Winter Tells True Stories for Young Children
Author Profiles, Biography, Christmas, Day of the Dead, Jamaica, Kids Iraq, Mexico, October kids, Quilts, September 11, South Africa, Tsunami, Underground Railroad, Virginia Johnson, Autobiography and Biography, History, Multicultural
10/22/2009 - 1:37pm

There are some things which are hard and painful to understand. Slavery. Skyscrapers exploding. War. Tsunamis. Even famous people's ordinary lives.

But in a true story, there may also be courage, hope, love, and determination. When Jeanette Winter tells her readers of historic events and people, she makes sure the stories carry not only the frightening pieces but the parts that leaven the misery as well.

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Read-along, Play-along with David Shannon
Author Profiles, October kids, Virginia Johnson, Arts and Artists, Autobiography and Biography, Humor, Picture Book
09/03/2009 - 2:44pm

When David Shannon was five-years-old, he wrote a book about himself. On each page, there were different pictures of that showed the story of how he was so very good at getting into trouble. Each page had the words, "No, David!"

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