Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
A folk tale chapter book set in an unnamed Arabic country where a slave boy helps to raise and train a flying horse. This was Barbara Berger’s first book. She had been one of my students at Centrum and I introduced her to Ann Beneduce who started her on her very illustrious career.
The first of the Pit Dragon trilogy, (second is Heart’s Blood, third is A Sending of Dragons) this science fiction novel takes place on another planet–Austar IV–where great dragons are fought in pits. This is the story of a young bond boy who buys his way out of servitude at a dragon nursery by
I began the COMMANDER TOAD books because I saw an article in the local newspaper about a boy and his frog who had just won a jumping-frog contest. The frog’s name was “Star Warts.” I thought it would be funnier if the frog had been a toad, since the old superstition is that toads gives you
This was originally (1976) a poem in Cricket about the many uses of hands. Years later (1991) it published by the educational publisher, Sundance in both a small and a Big Book paperback.
One day I was watching the “Ice Capades” with my children and some little brain tickle produced the title “The Mice Capades.” Of course there was no plot or characters–just the title. Gradually that became an easy reading story idea which grew and grew and grew until it was a small chapter book.
A collection of night-time poems, with lovely ink drawings by Demi, this book went out of print almost as soon as it was published because Methuen in the USA went out of business with that list. However, the book was published in England as well. And most of the poems have seen multiple
This sequel to “Spider Jane” is another little easy reading chapter book and was similarly lost. That is, it had nice reviews and few sales. I never quite knew why. It is about a house-proud spider and her friend, Bluebottle Burt who helps her keep her web clean. In this book, Spider Jane moves house.
This is a book of nonsense poems, about made up animals. Like the Shirk–a lazy shark. Or the Dinosore whose pounding poundage makes him weak. I wrote many of these on walks by the Connecticut River, telling the poems into my little tape recorder. As I am an incorrigible punster, I had a ball
This science fictional mystery was meant to be the beginning of a series. First publication was in a short-lived Random House book club edition illustrated by Deeter, then simultaneous hard/soft from Knopf with illustrator Obrist. I know that’s confusing. At least it confused me!
The 1970’s was a time of a great upsurge in children’s publishing, and everyone was trying easy readers. This little book–and its prequel THE GIANTS FARM–were both my entry into that particular genre. The five giants live on Fe-Fi-Fo-Farm which is what I wanted to call our farm when