Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are made for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. Instantly successful, widely read in high schools and middle schools in the United States, it has become a classic of modern American literature, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.
Marguerite Yourcenar was a French novelist and essayist born in Brussels, Belgium, who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980, and the seventeenth person to occupy seat 3.
Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He became widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak also wrote works such as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and illustrated many works by other authors including the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik.
Marguerite Vivian Young was an American novelist and academic. She is best known for her novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. In her later years, she was known for teaching creative writing and as a mentor to young authors. "She was a respected literary figure as well as a cherished Greenwich Village eccentric." During her lifetime, Young wrote two books of poetry, two historical studies, one collection of short stories, one novel, and one collection of essays.
The Sneetches and Other Stories is a collection of stories by American children's author Dr. Seuss, published in 1961. It is composed of four separate stories with themes of tolerance, diversity, and compromise: "The Sneetches", "The Zax", "Too Many Daves", and "What Was I Scared Of?". Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." In 2012 it was ranked number 63 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the fifth of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.
Marguerite Henry was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for one of her books about horses and she was a runner-up for two others. One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several sequels and for the 1961 movie Misty.
Chris Crutcher is an American novelist and a family therapist. He received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2000 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.
Maniac Magee is a novel written by American author Jerry Spinelli and published in 1990. Exploring themes of racism and inequality, it follows the story of an orphan boy looking for a home in the fictional town of Two Mills. Two Mills is harshly segregated between the East and West, blacks and whites. He becomes a local legend for feats of athleticism and helpfulness, and his ignorance of sharp racial boundaries in the town. It is popular in middle school curricula, and has been used in social studies on the premises of reaction to racial identity and reading. A TV movie was released in 2003.
Augusta Braxton Baker was an American librarian and storyteller. She was known for her contributions to children’s literature, especially regarding the portrayal of black Americans in works for children.
Marguerite de Angeli was an American writer and illustrator of children's books including the 1950 Newbery Award winning book The Door in the Wall. She wrote and illustrated twenty-eight of her own books, and illustrated more than three dozen books and numerous magazine stories and articles for other authors.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth was an American writer of fiction and poetry for children and adults. She won the 1931 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association award recognizing The Cat Who Went to Heaven as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." In 1968 she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writers.
Henner's Lydia is a 1936 children's story book written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, winner of the 1950 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature for another book, The Door in the Wall. Henner's Lydia is a story about a young Amish girl named Lydia Stoltzfus and her "Pop" Henner, or Henry. The story is set in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Black Fox of Lorne is a 1956 children's historical novel written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli. This Newbery Honor Book is about tenth-century Viking twins who shipwreck on the Scottish coast and seek to avenge the death of their father. They encounter loyal clansmen at war, kindly shepherds, power-hungry lairds, and staunch crofters.
Ted and Nina Go to the Grocery Store is a 1935 children's story book written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli. Although de Angeli had previously illustrated books and stories for other authors, this was her first work as both author and illustrator. That she should compose such a book had been suggested by editor Helen Ferris of the Junior Literary Guild: "I have been getting letters asking for books suitable for very young readers - something they can read to themselves in the first grade. Why don't you write one?. .. Take a subject familiar to most children, say, a trip to the grocery store or some other everyday adventure."
Butter at the Old Price: The Autobiography of Marguerite de Angeli is an account of the life and work of the children's author and illustrator Marguerite de Angeli, who wrote such books as The Door in the Wall, Ted and Nina Go to the Grocery Store, Henner's Lydia, and Black Fox of Lorne. The autobiography was printed in 1971 when its author was 82 years old. Her 1946 story Bright April was the first children's book to address the divisive issue of racial prejudice. She was recipient of the 1950 Newbery Award for The Door in the Wall, and was twice named a Caldecott Honor Book illustrator, first in 1945 for Yonie Wondernose and again in 1955 for Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes. She received a 1957 Newbery Honor mention for Black Fox of Lorne, a 1961 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and the 1968 Regina Medal.
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 130,000 books and serials published in Great Britain and the United States from the mid-17th century through the present. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States. The product of Ruth Baldwin's 40-year collection development efforts, this vast assemblage of literature printed primarily for children offers an equally vast territory of topics for the researcher to explore: education and upbringing, family and gender roles, civic values, racial, religious, and moral attitudes, literary style and format, and the arts of illustration and book design.
William Anderson is an American author, historian and lecturer. He is a specialist in the subject of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her times.
Meggy MacIntosh is a children's historical novel by Elizabeth Janet Gray. Beginning in 1775, it follows the story of a young Scottish orphan who becomes involved with the American revolutionary cause in North Carolina despite her attachment to Flora MacDonald, a loyalist. The novel, illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, was first published in 1930 and was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1931.
The Rabbits' Wedding is a children's picture book created and illustrated by American author and illustrator Garth Williams, who came to the fore as a writer after his success as an illustrator with Stuart Little. The Rabbits' Wedding was published on April 30, 1958, and depicted the love affair and wedding of two bunnies, one white and one black. The following year it became the center of a controversy in the state of Alabama when Edward Oswell Eddins, State Senator from Marengo County, claimed the book was "propaganda for integration and intermarriage". Alabama's State Library Agency director, Emily Wheelock Reed, faced censorship challenges over the book at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South.
