This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1989.
Andrew Elborn Clements was an American author of children's literature. His debut novel Frindle won an award determined by the vote of U.S. schoolchildren in about 20 different U.S. states. In June 2015, Frindle was named the Phoenix Award winner for 2016, as it was the best book that did not win a major award when it was published.
Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon Holmes, Don DeLillo, and Edith Wharton.
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there is usually a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a novelistic manner.
Lois Jane Ehlert was an American author and illustrator of children's books, most having to do with nature. Ehlert won the Caldecott Honor for Color Zoo in 1990. Some of her other popular works included Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale/Un cuento folklórico Mexicano and Leaf Man. She lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the time of her death in 2021.
Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Atheneum Books for Young Readers as an imprint for children's books in the 2000s.
William Ivan Martin Jr. was an American educator, publishing executive, and author of more than 300 children's books including The Sounds of Mystery,Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?. The Bill Martin Jr. Award, which is the Kansas state award for best children's picture book, was established in his honor in 1996.
A tactile alphabet is a system for writing material that the blind can read by touch. While currently the Braille system is the most popular and some materials have been prepared in Moon type, historically, many other tactile alphabets have existed:
David Roy Plummer is an English musician and author of children's books and music. In 1968, he graduated from Reigate School of Art and Design. He signed record deals in London with EMI, CBS, and President Records. As a session musician he recorded and toured the United Kingdom and Europe with several bands (with
Salvatore "Sal" Murdocca is an American children's book illustrator. He is best known for illustrating the Magic Tree House series written by Mary Pope Osborne and the nonfiction Magic Tree House Fact Checkers by Osborne and collaborators —about 50 and 30 volumes respectively to 2014. He also illustrated a series by George Edward Stanley.
Kino's Storytime, also known as Storytime, is an American children's reading television program which aired on PBS from October 12, 1992 until September 1, 1997. It was produced by KCET in Los Angeles, California. It was available on VHS from Strand Home Video and Video Treasures. It was co-hosted by Anne Betancourt as Lucy, Marabina Jaimes as Mara, and Kino, voiced and performed by puppeteer Mark Ritts.
Dr. Michael Sampson is a Fulbright Scholar and an American children's author best known for easy-to-read books that feature rhythmic and repetitive language. Sampson's first children's book, The Football That Won, was written solo in 1992 and illustrated by Ted Rand. Later, Sampson wrote 21 books with his best friend and mentor Bill Martin, Jr., including Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 and The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry.
Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 is the title of a children's picture book written by Bill Martin, Jr. and Michael Sampson, and illustrated by Lois Ehlert in 2004 by Simon & Schuster. The book features anthropomorphized numbers.
Victoria Chang is an American poet, writer, editor, and critic. She has experimented with different styles of writing, including writing obituaries for parts of her life, including her parents and herself, in Obit, letters in Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief, and a Japanese form known as waka in The Trees Witness Everything. In all of her poems and books, Chang has several common themes: living as an Asian-American woman, depression, and dealing with loss and grief. She has also written two books for children.
Gerald Andrews Hausman is a storyteller and award-winning author of books about Native America, animals, mythology, and West Indian culture. Hausman has published over seventy books for both children and adults.
Crystal Taliefero-Pratt is an American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Taliefero grew up with a musical family, performing rhythm and blues with her brother in the Chicago metropolitan area. During her college years she was discovered by John Mellencamp, who helped guide her to a career as a professional musician. Taliefero performed with several artists throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1989 she was hired as a studio musician for the Billy Joel Band, and she has been touring and recording with them ever since.
John Archambault is an American children's book author, poet, story teller, and musician. He is known best for his best selling children's book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989). Among his most recognizable children's books are Knots on a Counting Rope, Barn Dance, Boom Chicka Rock, Here Are My Hands, and The Birth of a Whale. Archambault was an avid reader from a young age, ultimately sparking his interest in writing. Throughout his career he has enjoyed collaboration with Bill Martin, Jr., also a children's book author. Archambault currently resides in Yorba Linda, California.
Peter Knobler is an American writer living in New York City. He has collaborated on fifteen books, ten of them best sellers and was the editor-in-chief of Crawdaddy magazine from 1972 to 1979.
Boys in the Trees is a memoir by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon.
