100 hundred years ago at this time on and on this day...

In the early hours of the morning on April 15, 1912, The RMS Titanic, mortally wounded after it struck an iceberg, sank. 1,514 people died, and the world has been telling the story of the tragedy every since. Movies have been made about the event, and books have been written. Since the wreck of the Titanic was found in 1985, people have argued about whether it is acceptable to bring artifacts to the surface or whether they should remain on the seafloor. Though the last survivor of the tragedy has died, the stories of the victims and the survivors live on.


Ever since I started reviewing books for young readers, I have been reading and reviewing books about the Titanic. You can see these titles on the TTLG Titanic Feature Page. One of my favorite titles, "Polar the Titanic Bear" is about a stuffed animal, a polar bear toy, that survived the tragedy. The story is told from the point of view of the bear, and it is interesting and, of course, very touching.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss - Read Across America Day

On this day in 1904 Theodor Seuss Geisel came into the world. In honor of his birthday I would like to share a profile of this great man with you:

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted's father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

Although the Geisels enjoyed great financial success for many years, the onset of World War I and Prohibition presented both financial and social challenges for the German immigrants. Nonetheless, the family persevered and again prospered, providing Ted and his sister, Marnie, with happy childhoods.

The influence of Ted's memories of Springfield can be seen throughout his work. Drawings of Horton the Elephant meandering along streams in the Jungle of Nool, for example, mirror the watercourses in Springfield's Forest Park from the period. The fanciful truck driven by Sylvester McMonkey McBean in The Sneetches could well be the Knox tractor that young Ted saw on the streets of Springfield. In addition to its name, Ted's first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, is filled with Springfield imagery, including a look-alike of Mayor Fordis Parker on the reviewing stand, and police officers riding red motorcycles, the traditional color of Springfield's famed Indian Motocycles.

Ted left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humor magazine. Although his tenure as editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, which was against the prohibition laws and school policy, he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work "Seuss." This is the first record of the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name and his mother's maiden name.

To please his father, who wanted him to be a college professor, Ted went on to Oxford University in England after graduation. However, his academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife, but also a children's author and book editor.

After returning to the United States, Ted began to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted's activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years.

As World War II approached, Ted's focus shifted, and he began contributing weekly political cartoons to PM magazine, a liberal publication. Too old for the draft, but wanting to contribute to the war effort, Ted served with Frank Capra's Signal Corps (U.S. Army) making training movies. It was here that he was introduced to the art of animation and developed a series of animated training films featuring a trainee called Private Snafu.

While Ted was continuing to contribute to Life, Vanity Fair, Judge and other magazines, Viking Press offered him a contract to illustrate a collection of children's sayings called Boners. Although the book was not a commercial success, the illustrations received great reviews, providing Ted with his first "big break" into children's literature. Getting the first book that he both wrote and illustrated, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, published, however, required a great degree of persistence - it was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press.

The Cat in the Hat, perhaps the defining book of Ted's career, developed as part of a unique joint venture between Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked Ted to write and illustrate a children's primer using only 225 "new-reader" vocabulary words. Because he was under contract to Random House, Random House obtained the trade publication rights, and Houghton Mifflin kept the school rights. With the release of The Cat in the Hat, Ted became the definitive children's book author and illustrator.

After Ted's first wife died in 1967, Ted married an old friend, Audrey Stone Geisel, who not only influenced his later books, but now guards his legacy as the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated 44 children's books, including such all-time favorites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You'll Go, Fox in Socks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books had been translated into more than 15 languages. Over 200 million copies had found their way into homes and hearts around the world.

Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children's television specials, a Broadway musical and a feature-length motion picture. Other major motion pictures are on the way.

His honors included two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize. 

Please visit the Seussville website to learn more about Dr. Seuss, to explore his books, to play games, and to download Seuss-ish goodies.

In honor of Dr. Seuss, March 2nd is Read Across America Day. Get information about this event on NEA's Read Across America webpage.

Please visit the TTLG Dr. Seuss page to find reviews of books by and about Dr. Seuss.

Books for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On Monday January 16th, people all over America will be
remembering the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. I did not learn learn much about this extraordinary man until I moved to the U.S when I was in my early twenties. Then I started working in a school, and my students began telling me about the civil rights leader who kept on fighting for the cause, even when his life was threatened. I was drawn to his story, and when I began reviewing children's books, I made a point of looking for titles that were about Martin Luther King's work. You can take a look at these titles on the TTLG Martin Luther King Jr feature page. Each title in this collection offers readers something special, and any one of them would be an excellent title to share with a children or children on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Bookish Calendar: The anniversary of the first Moon Landing

On this day in 1969, human beings walked on the moon for the first time. As millions of people watched, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon and took those first incredible steps. Over the years I have been lucky enough to review some wonderful books about the moon landing and you can see my reviews on the Through the Looking Glass Book Review website in the Man goes to the Moon feature. There are some wonderful titles in this collection, and I hope you find a title or two that you would like add to your library.

Here is a video of that famous landing. Enjoy!

Anniversary - The birthday of Roger Hargreaves, creator of the Mr. Men books

On this day in 1935 Charles Roger Hargreaves was born. Hargreaves  was an English author and illustrator of children's books, notably the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly-colored, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture for over 25 years, with sales of over 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.

Hargreaves was born in a private hospital at 201 Bath Road, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire to Alfred Reginald and Ethel Mary Hargreaves. He grew up in High Lees at 703 Halifax Road, Cleckheaton, outside of which there now is a commemorative plaque.

Hargreaves spent a year working in his father's laundry and dry-cleaning business before starting out in advertising. His original ambition was to be a cartoonist, and in 1971, while working as the creative director at a London firm, he wrote the first Mr. Men book, Mr. Tickle. Initially he had difficulty finding a publisher, but once he did the books became an instant success, selling over one million copies within three years. In 1975 it spawned a BBC animated television series called the Mr. Men Show, Mr. Tickle being voiced by Arthur Lowe.

By 1976, Hargreaves had quit his day job. In 1981 the Little Miss series of books was launched, and in 1983 it also was made into a television series, narrated by John Alderton. He voiced the Men and Pauline Collins voiced the Misses. Although Hargreaves wrote many other children's stories—including the Timbuctoo series of 25 books, John Mouse and the Roundy and Squarey books—he is best known for his 46 Mr. Men and 33 Little Miss books.

Between 1979 and 1982 Hargreaves lived with his family in Guernsey. Then they settled at Sussex House Farm near Cowden, Kent. Hargreaves died in 1988 at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Royal Tunbridge Wells following a stroke. After his death, his son Adam continued writing and drawing the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters with new stories. However, in April 2004 Hargreaves's wife Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men characters to the UK entertainment group Chorion, for £28 million.

Hargreaves and his wife had four children: Adam, Giles and twins Sophie and Amelia. The first of the Mr. Men characters is reported to have been created when Adam, at age 6, asked his father what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long rubbery arms, which became Mr. Tickle.

In honor of Hargreaves' wonderful books, Google has released "tons of doodles" featuring the now famous Mr. Men and Little Miss characters.To find out more about the books, you can visit the Mr. Men and Little Miss website.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss - Read Across America Day

On this day in 1904 Theodor Seuss Geisel came into the world. In honor of his birthday I would like to share a profile of this great man with you:

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted's father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

Although the Geisels enjoyed great financial success for many years, the onset of World War I and Prohibition presented both financial and social challenges for the German immigrants. Nonetheless, the family persevered and again prospered, providing Ted and his sister, Marnie, with happy childhoods.

The influence of Ted's memories of Springfield can be seen throughout his work. Drawings of Horton the Elephant meandering along streams in the Jungle of Nool, for example, mirror the watercourses in Springfield's Forest Park from the period. The fanciful truck driven by Sylvester McMonkey McBean in The Sneetches could well be the Knox tractor that young Ted saw on the streets of Springfield. In addition to its name, Ted's first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, is filled with Springfield imagery, including a look-alike of Mayor Fordis Parker on the reviewing stand, and police officers riding red motorcycles, the traditional color of Springfield's famed Indian Motocycles.

Ted left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humor magazine. Although his tenure as editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, which was against the prohibition laws and school policy, he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work "Seuss." This is the first record of the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name and his mother's maiden name.

To please his father, who wanted him to be a college professor, Ted went on to Oxford University in England after graduation. However, his academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife, but also a children's author and book editor.

After returning to the United States, Ted began to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted's activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years.

As World War II approached, Ted's focus shifted, and he began contributing weekly political cartoons to PM magazine, a liberal publication. Too old for the draft, but wanting to contribute to the war effort, Ted served with Frank Capra's Signal Corps (U.S. Army) making training movies. It was here that he was introduced to the art of animation and developed a series of animated training films featuring a trainee called Private Snafu.

While Ted was continuing to contribute to Life, Vanity Fair, Judge and other magazines, Viking Press offered him a contract to illustrate a collection of children's sayings called Boners. Although the book was not a commercial success, the illustrations received great reviews, providing Ted with his first "big break" into children's literature. Getting the first book that he both wrote and illustrated, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, published, however, required a great degree of persistence - it was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press.

The Cat in the Hat, perhaps the defining book of Ted's career, developed as part of a unique joint venture between Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked Ted to write and illustrate a children's primer using only 225 "new-reader" vocabulary words. Because he was under contract to Random House, Random House obtained the trade publication rights, and Houghton Mifflin kept the school rights. With the release of The Cat in the Hat, Ted became the definitive children's book author and illustrator.

After Ted's first wife died in 1967, Ted married an old friend, Audrey Stone Geisel, who not only influenced his later books, but now guards his legacy as the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated 44 children's books, including such all-time favorites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You'll Go, Fox in Socks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books had been translated into more than 15 languages. Over 200 million copies had found their way into homes and hearts around the world.

Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children's television specials, a Broadway musical and a feature-length motion picture. Other major motion pictures are on the way.

His honors included two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize. 

Please visit the Seussville website to learn more about Dr. Seuss, to explore his books, to play games, and to download Seuss-ish goodies.

In honor of Dr. Seuss, March 2nd is Read Across America Day. Get information about this event on NEA's Read Across America webpage.

Please visit the TTLG Dr. Seuss page to find reviews of books by and about Dr. Seuss.

Bookish Calendar - The birthday of two queens

Mary Queen of Scots

On the 8th of December 1542 Mary, the daughter of King James V of Scotland, was born. Just a few days after her birth, Mary's father died and the infant Mary became the Scottish queen regnant. Nine months later she was crowned queen, but she did not become the acting queen until many years later. At the tender age of five Mary was sent to France where she was educated and groomed to become the future queen of France. When she was sixteen she was married to the Dauphin Francis, and for a short time Mary was queen of France. Then her husband died and Mary returned to Scotland to take her rightful place as the queen. Unfortunately it was not a role that she understood, and her rule was complicated by political and personal problems that brought about her downfall. Young readers can learn about this fascinating woman by reading the books reviewed on the TTLG Mary Queen of Scots page. 

Queen Kristina of Sweden

On December 8th 1626, princess Kristina of Sweden was born. Kristina was a very unusual woman, who created quite a stir when she decided to live her life as she chose, rather than live her life as she was supposed to do. Carolyn Meyer has written a wonderful book about this ruler in her book Kristina: The Girl King, Sweden 1638.

Bookish Calendar - On this day in 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese fighter planes

USS California sinking on December 7th, 1941

Early on Sunday December 7th, 1941 Japanese fighters attacked targets on the island of Oahu. The fighters chose as many 'high value targets' as they could, and ended up sinking and damaging numerous ships and planes. 2, 386 Americans were killed and 1,139 were wounded.

This event made a huge impression on Americans, and many books have been written about that fateful day, including some excellent titles for young readers. On the TTLG Attack on Pearl Harbor feature page you will find reviews of several titles, both fiction and nonfiction, that tell the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor very well.

Anniversaries - Louisa May Alcott and C.S. Lewis

On this day in 1832 Louisa May Alcott was born. Louisa May was an American novelist who is best known for her novel Little Women, which is set in the Alcott family home in Massachusetts. Little Women was loosely based on Louisa's childhood experiences with her three sisters, and it was published in 1868. I have reviewed a wonderful biography about Louis May Alcott which is called Beyond Little Women: A Story About Louisa May Alcott and you can also read my reviews of the four Little Women books on the Through the Looking Glass Book Reviews website


Sixty-six years after the birth of Louisa May Alcott, Clive Staples Lewis was born in Ireland on November 29, 1898. Commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is also known for his fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy.

Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, and both authors were leading figures in the English faculty at Oxford University and in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings.” According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptized in the Church of Ireland at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England.” His conversion had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.

In 1956, he married the American writer Joy Gresham, 17 years his junior, who died four years later of cancer at the age of 45.

Lewis died three years after his wife, as the result of renal failure. His death came one week before his 65th birthday. Media coverage of his death was minimal, as he died on 22 November 1963 – the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the same day another famous author, Aldous Huxley, died.

Lewis's works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularized on stage, TV, radio and cinema.

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham with the “Ham it up” video contest

Seuss fans can enter to win a cash prize, a year supply of Ham I Am! products, Seuss memorabilia, books and more!

CELEBRATE THE 50^TH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. SEUSS’S GREEN EGGS AND HAM

 WITH THE “HAM IT UP” VIDEO CONTEST

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s classic Green Eggs and Ham Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. have launched the “HAM It Up” video contest, calling for fans across the United States to channel their own Sam-I-Am and submit a video capturing their interpretation of a scene from the book. The grand prize winner will receive a $2,000 cash prize, a year’s supply of Ham I Am! products, a beautifully framed 50^th Anniversary Green Eggs and Ham print, a flip camera and a Dr. Seuss library of books. Originally published in 1960, Green Eggs and Ham has sold over 13 million copies in North America.

The “HAM It Up” video contest kicks-off on September 21 and will end on November 3, 2010.  Details on how to enter and official contest rules are available on Seussville at http://GreenEggsContest.seussville.com.  Entrants can submit their video by upload, in-browser recording, or via a YouTube url. The contest platform will display videos within a player so that they are shareable and embeddable. Entrants are encouraged to promote their video to friends and family to boost their ratings. The general public will decide which participants best tapped into their inner Sam-I-Am during a public voting period. The videos with the most votes will be judged by the Random House Children's Books team and Dr. Seuss Enterprises to determine the best overall acts. Prizes will be awarded to one grand prize winner and ten runners up based on the following criteria: creativity and originality, representation of the contest theme and public votes. The ten runners up will receive a $100 grocery gift card from the National Pork Board, framed Dr. Seuss art, and a Dr. Seuss library of books (please see contest website for official prizing details). http://greeneggscontest.seussville.com/greeneggsham/

Dr. Seuss fans can also add to their bookshelves with two new releases! In honor of the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham Random House Children’s Books released a limited edition of the title on August 24, 2010. This PARTY EDITION includes a foiled-cover and features the complete original text and art at the regular edition price of $8.99. Random House will also release a board book, DO YOU LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM? on October 26, 2010 (Ages 0-3 / $9.99). This latest addition to the Dr. Seuss Nursery Collection title is filled with interactive fun for baby, and includes a plastic green egg that children can squeak, spin, and see themselves in with the mini-mirror on the back.  

Roald Dahl's birthday is today! A Review of the new Roald Dahl Book

Roald Dahl was born on this day in 1916. He was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter ace and screenwriter of Norwegian parentage. Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. His short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark humour.

Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG.

Recently Penguin released a book featuring some of Roald Dahl's writings that have never been published in book form before. Here is my review of this delightful book. 

The Missing Golden Ticket and other Splendiferous Secrets

Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

Fiction

Ages 8 and up

Penguin, 2010, 978-0-14-241742-3

   Once upon a time, an author called Roald Dahl wrote a book about a boy who goes to a chocolate factory. He falls into a vat of chocolate and is turned into a chocolate figure. Wait a minute…that’s not how it goes! No, it isn’t, but that is how Roald Dahl first wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After many revisions, he ended up with the story that so many of us know and love. However, before that came about, Roald Dahl had to make a lot of changes, and this included cutting out several characters from the story. He began with “ten horrid little boys and girls,” and ended up with the five that have since become famous: Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, and Charlie Bucket. He originally called the little people living in the factory Whipple-Scrumpets. Later this name was changed to Oopa-Loopas. He had a whole chapter about “Spotty Powder” that never made it into the book.

   In this fact-filled book, Roald Dahl fans will find out all kinds of things about Roald Dahl’s famous book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In addition, there are musings from Dahl about the months of the year, scrumptious facts about chocolate, and a recipe for Mr. Wonka’s Strawberry-flavored Chocolate-coated Fudge. There is a list of Roald Dahl’s favorite things, a chapter about Quentin Blake (who illustrated many of Roald Dahl’s books), and excerpts from young Roald’s school reports – which are quite shocking! Readers will find out what Roald Dahl thought of chocolate, Roald Dahl’s secret writing tips, and what he thought of Quentin Blake. And there’s more!

   In short, this book is a must for anyone who likes Roald Dahl’s books. Be prepared to be amused, excited, and, of course, gobsmacked.

   

The Anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush

On this day in 1896 a party of travelers led by a man called Skookum Jim Mason discovered gold in Bonanza Creek in the Yukon. It all happened when Skookum Jim was heading north down the Yukon River looking for his sister Kate and her husband George Carmack. In addition to Skookum Jim, the group included Dawson Charlie and Patsy Henderson. The group found George and Kate fishing for salmon at the mouth of the Klondike River.

It is not clear who made the actual discovery, with some accounts saying that it was Kate Carmack, while others credit Skookum Jim. George Carmack was officially credited for the gold discovery because the actual claim was staked in his name. The group agreed to this because they felt that other miners would be reluctant to recognize a claim made by an Indian, given the strong racist attitudes of the time.

News of the discovery soon spread, and it wasn't long before people of all kinds were flooding into the region. Through the Looking Glass has reviewed an interesting collection of children's titles about this event. Take a look here to see the TTLG Klondike Gold Rush Feature. 

May 27th - Rachel Carson was born on this day in 1907

I have to confess that I didn't know much about Rachel Carson until I moved to the United States in 1992. Since then I have read and been inspired by her books. Here is a review of a book that I read this week.

Rachel Carson: Preserving a sense of wonder

Joseph Bruchac

Illustrated by Thomas Locker

Nonfiction picture book

Ages 6 to 10

Fulcrum Publishing, 2004, 978-1-55591-695-4

When Rachel was a little girl, she lived in Springdale, Pennsylvania, “a town once as lovely as its name.” She had a deep love of books, and through them she developed a interest in the sea. Though writing was what she loved, Rachel studied biology in college. She finally got to see the sea in person and she fell in love with its moods and its stories. Later Rachel wrote about the sea in her first book, Under the Sea-Wind.

   All this time Rachel’s once lovely hometown in Pennsylvania, was being poisoned. The rivers were filthy, “the air was choked with smoke,” and poisonous agricultural sprays were killing animals of all kinds. Hearing about this terrible development, Rachel decided to write a new book. This new book, Silent Spring, angered a lot of people, but it also helped many others to see that it is important to protect the environment, and that we all have to do our part to safeguard our planet.

   In this truly beautiful picture book, a lyrical and powerful text is perfectly married to Thomas Locker’s gorgeous paintings. Readers will get a memorable picture of what Rachel Carson was like and how important her legacy has been for all of us. 

Anniversaries - Beverly Cleary's Birthday April 12th

I grew up on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and though I was lucky enough to get my hands on a selection of children's books that were published in the United States, some American titles never got to my part of the world at all. These included the books by Beverly Cleary, the author who created the characters Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins, among others. I ended up reading these books when I was an adult, and I have to say that I have enjoyed every single one of them.

Almost three years ago I moved to Oregon, the state where Beverly Cleary was born, and where so many of her stories are based. People here are incredibly proud of Beverly Cleary, and if you go to Portland you can even visit The Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden in Grant Park where you can see the statues of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ribsy - some of the characters that Clearly brought to life in her books.

Today is Beverly Clearly's birthday and I would like to share her story with you:

Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon. She was raised on a farm in McMinnville, and grew up in Yamhill, with no local access to a library. Beverly’s mother felt that this was a disadvantage for the students at the small farm school, and she made arrangements to have books sent there from the State Library. As a result, Beverly grew to love books.

When Beverly was six years old, her family left the farm and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she attended elementary and high school. Her struggle with reading in this new school setting was blamed partly on her dissatisfaction with the books she was required to read and partly on an unpleasant first grade teacher, Mrs. Falb. Also, after six years of living in the country, on a farm, the city life in Portland took a toll on Beverly's health, and in her first-grade year she was frequently ill, which set back her schoolwork and reading skills even further.

In the second grade, Beverly studied under her favorite and most-beloved teacher, Miss Marius, and by the third grade, she had greatly improved her reading ability and found a new enjoyment from books. She read The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, and became a frequent visitor to the library.

The grammar school librarian was largely responsible for developing Beverly's love of reading. She encouraged Beverly to check out books about subjects to which she could relate. The librarian not only encouraged Beverly to read but also to write her own books, and instilled in Beverly the belief that she too could write for children some day.  

In 1934, age 18, she moved to Ontario, California, to attend Chaffey College, from which she earned an Associate of Arts degree. She worked as a substitute librarian at the Ontario City Library. After graduating with a BA in English in 1938 from the University of California at Berkeley, she studied at the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, where she earned a degree in library science in 1939.

As college was expensive, and it was the Depression, Beverly had to work to earn money, through the cooperative education program at the University. One afternoon as Beverly took a break from her chores at work she found herself having a sandwich with a young gentleman named Clarence Cleary, her future husband.

The Library Science degree allowed her to work with young children and develop a relationship with children at all socioeconomic levels. Her first full-time job as a librarian was in Yakima, Washington, where she met many children who were searching for the same books that she had always hoped to find as a child herself. Beverly sympathized with children who felt that there were no books written about children like themselves. This made Beverly more driven to help provide children with stories to which they could relate.

In response to this experience, she later wrote her first book, Henry Huggins, which was published in 1951. It was about a boy, his dog and their friends, all of whom lived on "Klickitat Street" in Portland (a real street that was only a few blocks from where Cleary grew up as a child). According to Beverly, Henry Huggins and his friends represented all the children she grew up with, and the ones who sat in front of her during library story hours.

As she crafted her first novel, she recalled advice from her mother and incorporated her beliefs that the best writing was simple and filled with humor. She also remembered advice from a college professor who emphasized writing about universal human experience. Beezus and Ramona, Cleary's first novel to feature the Quimby sisters as the central focus of the story, was published in 1955, although Beezus and Ramona made frequent appearances in the Henry Huggins series as supporting characters.

The opportunity to work with children as a librarian opened new doors for Beverly Cleary. She wanted to write books for children but was unsure if she had the experiences needed to write what she wanted. A publisher wanted her to write a book about a kindergarten student; Cleary felt that she could not write about this as she had not attended kindergarten. She later changed her mind after the birth of her twins. She learned to add a little wit and charm to her writing for children, with the hope that this would spark an interest in reading among her students and encourage them to want to read more books of this type. She is now an international favorite among children’s authors.

In 1940 she married Clarence T. Cleary and they moved to Oakland, California. They eloped because Cleary's parents were Presbyterians and did not approve of the union even after it occurred because Clarence was Roman Catholic. Beverly and Clarence Cleary had twins, Marrienne Elizabeth and Malcolm James. Clarence Cleary died in 2004. Beverly Cleary currently lives in Carmel, California.

She has also written two autobiographies, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

Her books are available in 15 languages in over 20 countries.

Cleary has won many awards, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1975 and the 1984 Newbery Medal for her book Dear Mr. Henshaw. Cleary received the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the Writers and Artists category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States. In 1980, Cleary was awarded the Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.

The Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library, near where she lived as a child, commissioned a map that is on its lobby wall of Henry Huggins's Klickitat Street neighborhood. Statues of her beloved characters Henry Huggins; the Huggins's dog, Ribsy; and Ramona Quimby can be found in Grant Park in Portland, Oregon. In June 2008, the two-campus K–8 school of the same neighborhood, Hollyrood-Fernwood, itself the product of a merger of two schools the previous year, was officially renamed Beverly Cleary School. As a child, Cleary attended the former Fernwood Grammar School, one of the two buildings that make up the school that now bear her namesake.

In 2004, the University of Washington's Information School completed fundraising for the Beverly Cleary Endowed Chair for Children and Youth Services to honor her work and commitment to librarianship. In 2008, the school announced that she had been selected as the next recipient of the Universities Alumnus Summa Laude Dignata Award, the highest honor that the University of Washington can bestow on a graduate.

She also has a residential hall at the University of California, Berkeley, named after her.

Cleary’s books have been published in 15 different languages and have earned many awards. A few examples of awards she has won include a 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw; a 1978 Newbery Honor Book for Ramona and Her Father; a 1982 Newbery Honor Book for Ramona Quimby, Age 8; a 1975 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the Association for Library Services to Children of the American Library Association; the Catholic Library Association's 1980 Regina Medal; and the Children's Book Council's 1985 Every Child Award. Cleary’s books have been read on PBS and ABC-TV.


Do visit Beverly Cleary's website to find out more about her life and her books. 

Anniversaries - Hans Christian Andersen's 205th Birthday - International Children's

Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, on Tuesday, April 2, 1805. "Hans" and "Christian" are traditional Danish names.

Andersen's father considered himself related to nobility. According to scholars at the Hans Christian Andersen Center, his paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had in the past belonged to a higher social class, but investigations prove these stories unfounded. The family apparently was affiliated with Danish royalty, but through employment or trade. Today, speculation persists that Andersen may have been an illegitimate son of the royal family. Whatever the reason, King Frederick VI took a personal interest in him as a youth and paid for a part of his education. According to writer Rolf Dorset, Andersen's ancestry remains indeterminate. 1816. Hans Christian was forced to support himself. He worked as a weaver's apprentice and later, for a tailor. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, he began to focus on writing.

Andersen had a half-sister, Karen Marie, with whom he managed to speak on only a few occasions before her death.

Jonas Collin, who, following a chance encounter with Andersen, immediately felt a great affection for him, sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, covering all his expenses. Andersen had already published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave in 1822. Though not a keen student, he also attended school at Elsinore, until 1827.

He later said his years in school were the darkest and bitterest of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home. There he was abused in order "to improve his character", he was told. He felt alienated from his classmates, being older than most of them. Considered unattractive, he suffered also from dyslexia. He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general.

In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with a short story titled "A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager". He also published a comedy and a collection of poems that season. Though he made little progress writing and publishing immediately thereafter, in 1833 he received a small traveling grant from the King, enabling him to set out on the first of his many journeys through Europe. At Jura, near Le Locle, Switzerland, he wrote the story, "Agnete and the Merman." He spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of Sestri Levante the same year, inspiring the name, The Bay of Fables. (See Voyagefever.com — an annual festival celebrates it). In October, 1834, he arrived in Rome. Andersen's first novel, The Improvisatore, was published at the beginning of 1835, becoming an instant success. During these traveling years, Hans Christian Andersen lived in an apartment at number 20, Nyhavn, Copenhagen. There, a memorial plaque was unveiled on May 8, 1835, a gift by Peter Schannong.

It was during 1835 that Andersen published the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales (Danish: Eventyr). More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels: O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler. His Specialty book that is still known today was the Ugly Duckling (1837).

After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem to convey his feeling of relatedness between the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians. It was in July 1839 during a visit to the island of Funen that Andersen first wrote the text of his poem Jeg er en Skandinav (I am a Scandinavian). Andersen designed the poem to capture "the beauty of the Nordic spirit, the way the three sister nations have gradually grown together" as part of a Scandinavian national anthem. Composer Otto Lindblad set the poem to music and the composition was published in January 1840. Its popularity peaked in 1845, after which it was seldom sung.

In 1851, he published to wide acclaim In Sweden, a volume of travel sketches. A keen traveler, Andersen published several other longtravelogues: Shadow Pictures of a Journey to the Harz, Swiss Saxony, etc. etc. in the Summer of 1831 (A Poet's Bazaar (560), In Spain , and A Visit to Portugal in 1866 (The latter describes his visit with his Portuguese friends Jorge and Jose O'Neill, who were his fellows in the mid 1820s while living in Copenhagen.) In his travelogues, Andersen took heed of some of the contemporary conventions about travel writing; but always developed the genre to suit his own purposes. Each of his travelogues combines documentary and descriptive accounts of the sights he saw with more philosophical excurses on topics such as being an author, immortality, and the nature of fiction in the literary travel report. Some of the travelogues, such as In Sweden, even contain fairy-tales.

In the 1840s Andersen's attention returned to the stage, however with no great success at all. His true genius was however proved in the miscellany the Picture-Book without Pictures (1840). The fame of his Fairy Taleshad grown steadily; a second series began in 1838 and a third in 1845. Andersen was now celebrated throughout Europe, although his native Denmark still showed some resistance to his pretensions. Between 1845 and 1864, H. C. Andersen lived in 67, Nyhavn, Copenhagen, where a memorial plaque is placed.

In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to England and enjoyed a triumphal social success during the summer. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where intellectual and famous people could meet, and it was at one party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda which was of much joy to Andersen. He wrote in his diary "We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most."

Ten years later, Andersen visited England, primarily to visit Dickens. He stayed at Dickens' home for five weeks, oblivious to Dickens' increasingly blatant hints for him to leave. Dickens' daughter said of Andersen, "He was a bony bore, and stayed on and on." Shortly after Andersen left, Dickens published David Copperfield, featuring the obsequious Uriah Heep, who is said to have been modeled on Andersen. Andersen himself greatly enjoyed the visit, and never understood why Dickens stopped answering his letters.

Andersen often fell in love with unattainable. The most famous of these was the opera soprano Jenny Lind. One of his stories, "The Nightingale", was a written expression of his passion for Lind, and became the inspiration for her nickname, the "Swedish Nightingale". Andersen was often shy around women and had extreme difficulty in proposing to Lind. When Lind was boarding a train to take her to an opera concert, Andersen gave Lind a letter of proposal. Her feelings towards him were not the same; she saw him as a brother, writing to him in 1844 "farewell... God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jenny." A girl named Riborg Voigt was the unrequited love of Andersen's youth. A small pouch containing a long letter from Riborg was found on Andersen's chest when he died. At one point he wrote in his diary: "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!" Other disappointments in love included Sophie Ørsted, the daughter of the physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, and Louise Collin, the youngest daughter of his benefactor Jonas Collin.

In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed and was severely hurt. He never fully recovered, but he lived until August 4, 1875, dying of insidious causes in a house called Rolighed (literally: calmness), near Copenhagen, the home of his close friends Moritz Melchior, a banker, and his wife. Shortly before his death, he had consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps." His body was interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen.

At the time of his death, he was an internationally renowned and treasured artist. He received a stipend from the Danish Government as a "national treasure". Before his death, steps were already underway to erect the large statue in his honor, which was completed and is prominently placed at the town hall square in Copenhagen.

In the English-speaking world, stories such as "Thumbelina", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Little Mermaid", "The Emperor's New Clothes", and "The Princess and the Pea" remain popular and are widely read. "The emperor's new clothes" and "ugly duckling" have both passed into the English language as well-known expressions.

In the Copenhagen harbor there is a statue of The Little Mermaid, placed in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. April 2, Andersen's birthday, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

The year 2005 was the bicentenary of Andersen's birth and his life and work was celebrated around the world. In Denmark, particularly, the nation's most famous son has been feted like no other literary figure.

In the United States, statues of Hans Christian Andersen may be found in Central Park, New York, and in Solvang, California. The Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds a unique collection of Andersen materials bequeathed by the Danish-American actor Jean Hersholt. Of particular note is an original scrapbook Andersen prepared for the young Jonas Drewsen.

A $12.5-million theme park based on Andersen's tales and life opened in Shanghai at the end of 2006. Multi-media games as well as all kinds of cultural contests related to the fairy tales are available to visitors. He was chosen as the star of the park because he is a "nice, hardworking person who was not afraid of poverty", Shanghai Gujin Investment general manager Zhai Shiqiang was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

On April 2, 2010, to honor Andersen's 205th birthday, Google's multi-colored logo on its homepage was replaced by a series of Google Doodles that present scenes from his children's story "Thumbelina".

You can read the books I have reviewed about Hans Christian Andersen on here on the TTLG website. Don't forget that today is International Children's Book Day.