Marion Dane Bauer (born November 20, 1938) is an American children's author. [1]
Bauer was born on November 20, 1938, and brought up in Oglesby, a small prairie town in Northern Illinois. She was educated at LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, the University of Missouri and the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated in 1962. She married Ronald Bauer, raising their two children as well as being a foster parent for other children. That marriage ended in divorce after 28 years. She has taught English at a Wisconsin high school and classes in creative writing in Minnesota. [2] Marion was one of the founders of the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. [3] She lives and works in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Marion wanted to be a writer from an early age. As a child, she says, "I constantly made [stories] up in my head, for my dolls, for my friends. I acted them out using my cigar box filled with marbles as characters." [4] An aunt gave her vital encouragement during her teenage years, by taking her work seriously and urging her to continue writing. Bauer recalls that "the example of someone who loved writing and found doing it both good and important, probably influenced me more deeply than any other." [5]
Rain of Fire (1983) won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1984. [6] On My Honor (1986) was a Newbery Honor Book in 1987 [7] and won the William Allen White Children's Book Award in 1989. [8] Am I Blue, an anthology of children's fiction about gay and lesbian issues, won a Lambda Literary Award in 1994, [9] and the Stonewall Book Award for literature in 1995. [10] Bauer received the Kerlan Award in 1996. [11] The Longest Night (2009) won a 2010 Golden Kite Award for picture-book text. [12]
Ruth Sawyer was an American storyteller and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She is best known as the author of Roller Skates, which won the 1937 Newbery Medal. She received the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 1965 for her lifetime achievement in children's literature.
Katherine Alice Applegate, known professionally as K. A. Applegate, is an American young adult and children's fiction writer, best known as the author of the Animorphs, Remnants, and Everworld book series. She won the 2013 Newbery Medal for her 2012 children's novel The One and Only Ivan. Applegate's most popular books are science fiction, fantasy, and adventure novels. She won the Best New Children's Book Series Award in 1997 in Publishers Weekly. Her book Home of the Brave has won several awards. She also wrote a chapter book series in 2008–09 called Roscoe Riley Rules.
Nancy Garden was an American writer of fiction for children and young adults, best known for the lesbian novel Annie on My Mind. She received the 2003 Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association recognizing her lifetime contribution in writing for teens, citing Annie alone.
Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder was an American author of books for children and young adults. Three of Snyder's works were named Newbery Honor books: The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm. She was most famous for writing adventure stories and fantasies.
Karen Cushman is an American writer of historical fiction.
Thomas Anthony "Tomie" dePaola was an American writer and illustrator who created more than 260 children's books, such as Strega Nona. He received the Children's Literature Legacy Award for his lifetime contribution to American children's literature in 2011.
Mary Stolz was an American writer of fiction for children and young adults. She received the 1953 Child Study Association of America's Children's Book Award for In a Mirror, Newbery Honors in 1962 for Belling the Tiger and 1966 for The Noonday Friends, and her entire body of work was awarded the George G. Stone Recognition of Merit in 1982.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti is an American writer of children's literature whose work includes Kids on Strike! and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow.
Christopher Paul Curtis is an American children's book author. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, was published in 1995 and brought him immediate national recognition, receiving the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award and the Newbery Honor Book Award, in addition to numerous other awards. In 2000, he became the first person to win both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award—prizes received for his second novel Bud, Not Buddy—and the first African-American man to win the Newbery Medal. His novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was made into a television film in 2013.
Richard Wayne Peck was an American novelist known for his contributions to modern young adult literature. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel A Year Down Yonder. He received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1990.
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
The Pura Belpré Award is a recognition presented to a Latino or Latina author and illustrator whose work best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. It was established in 1996. It was given every other year since 1996 until 2009 when it was changed to be given annually.
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.
Bette Jean Greene was the author of several books for children and young adults, including Summer of My German Soldier, The Drowning of Stephan Jones, and the Newbery Honor book Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe.
On My Honor is a novel by Marion Dane Bauer, first published in 1986. In 1987, it was a Newbery Honor Book and it won the William Allen White Children's Book Award in 1989. On My Honor has been used in the United States as part of school curriculums and has a separate study guide authored by Gail D. Hanna.
Mildred DeLois Taylor is a Newbery Award-winning American young adult novelist. She is best known for her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, part of her Logan family series.
Elizabeth Partridge is an American writer, the author of more than a dozen books from young-adult nonfiction to picture books to photography books. Her books include Marching for Freedom, as well the biographies John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, and Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange.
Larry Dane Brimner is an American teacher, presenter, and writer of more than 150 children's books. They have ranged from fantasy-style stories for young children to non-fiction books for older children. Many of his books have civil rights themes; his book We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin won the 2008 Jane Addams Children's Book Award in the "older children" category. This was followed by Birmingham Sunday, which received the Orbis Pictus Honor Book Award in 2011 from the National Council for Teachers of English and the Eureka! Gold Award from the California Reading Association. His 2011 title, Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor, was given the Carter G. Woodson Book Award and named a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. More recently, Brimner has started writing about the migrant children he once taught with the publication of STRIKE! The Farm Workers' Fight for Their Rights, which received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews.
Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence is a 1995 short story collection edited by Marion Dane Bauer. Geared toward young adults, the book covers topics such as homosexuality in "entertaining, informative ways. The stories vary from fantasy to very realistic, slice of life pieces." When the book was initially published, some proceeds were donated to PFLAG.