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.
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images in picture books are commonly produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil, among others.
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.
Anne Evelyn Bunting , also known as Eve Bunting, is a Northern Ireland-born American writer of more than 250 books. Her work covers a broad array of subjects and includes fiction and non-fiction books. Her novels are primarily aimed at children and young adults, but she has also written the text for picture books. While many of her books are set in Northern Ireland, where she grew up, her topics and settings range from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Bunting's first book, The Two Giants, was published in 1971. Due to the popularity of her books with children, she has been listed as one of the Educational Paperback Association's top 100 authors.
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.
Helen Sonia Cooper is a British illustrator and an author of children's literature. She grew up in Cumbria, where she practiced literature and piano playing. She currently lives in Oxford.
Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Their first book was Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat (1957). Cerf compiled a list of 379 words as the basic vocabulary for young readers, along with another 20 slightly harder "emergency" words. No more than 200 words were taken from that list to write The Cat in the Hat. Subsequent books in the series were modeled on the same requirement.
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.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a short children's story, first published by HarperCollins in 1968, written and illustrated by Judith Kerr. The book concerns a girl called Sophie, her mother, and an anthropomorphised tiger who interrupts their afternoon tea. The book remains extremely popular more than 50 years after it was first published, and a theatrical adaptation of the story has been produced. A television adaptation of the book aired on UK's Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 2019 at 7:30pm GMT.
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.
Bright April is a 1946 children's story book written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, who later won the 1950 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature for The Door in the Wall. Bright April is a story about a young African-American girl named April who experiences racial prejudice; it is also the story of her bright personality and her tenth birthday and the surprise it brought. The story is set in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the scenery portrayed in the author's illustrations can be recognized even today.
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.
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.
Helen Marion Palmer Geisel, known professionally as Helen Palmer, was an American children's author, editor, and philanthropist. She was married to fellow author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, from 1927 until her death. Her best-known books include Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?, I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo, Why I Built the Boogle House, and A Fish Out Of Water.
The Good Master (1935) is a children's novel written and illustrated by Kate Seredy. It was named a Newbery Honor book in 1936. The Good Master is set in the Hungarian countryside before World War I and tells the story of wild young Kate, who goes to live with her Uncle's family when her father can't control her and at the end she goes back to her father. At Uncle Marton's suggestion, Kate and her father move back to the country to live, to be near Marton and his wife and son. Like his brother Marton, Kate's father Sandor is a countryman and misses rural life. And he sees what a wonderful effect country life has had on Kate.
Helen Lester is an American children's writer, best known for her character Tacky the Penguin in many of her children's stories.
Helen Gillian Oxenbury is an English illustrator and writer of children's picture books. She lives in North London. She is a two-time winner and four-time runner up for the annual Kate Greenaway Medal, the British librarians' award for illustration. For the 50th anniversary of that Medal (1955–2005) her 1999 illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was named one of the top ten winning works.
Don't Forget the Bacon! is a children's book written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins. It was published by Bodley Head in 1976. The story is about a little boy who tries to memorise a list of groceries his mother has asked him to buy. The book has been used as a teaching tool to instruct children about early learning concepts.
Doris Gates was one of America's first writers of realistic children's fiction. Her novel Blue Willow, about the experiences of Janey Larkin, the ten-year-old daughter of a migrant farm worker in 1930s California, is a Newbery Honor book and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner. A librarian in Fresno, California, Gates lived and worked among the people described in her novels. She is also known for her collections of Greek mythology.
