Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott

By: Elizabeth Silverthorne

NEITHER LOUISA MAY Alcott nor her publisher was enthusiastic about the “girls’ book” she was writing. In their wildest imaginings they could not have dreamed that Little Women would become one of the most popular juvenile books ever written or that in 1995 it would appear on the bestseller list of the New York Times. No one could have made them believe that for over 130 years it would remain a beloved favorite, despite the modern advancements that have taken place since that time. Why do we who live in the computer age still enjoy reading about the daily lives of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy who grew up in New Englandin the mid 1800s without telephones, radios or television? What still fascinates us about these girls who never wore blue jeans. [download]

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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

By: Donna Dailey

IN JANUARY 1841, as ships fromEnglanddocked at New YorkCity’s harbor, concerned crowds gathered on the pier and called to disembarking passengers, “Is Little Nell dead?” They were referring to the doomed heroine of The Old Curiosity Shop, a novel by Charles Dickens. As was customary of much literature at the time, the story was being serialized in an English magazine, that is, it was published in installments over an extended period of time, and American readers could not wait for the final episode to reach their shores. A year later, the author himself stepped off the boat for his first American tour. Small in stature, he had long, brown, curling hair and a lively, attractive face. He was nattily dressed in a long-tailed brown frock coat, a red waistcoat with a gold watch chain, and a colorful cravat held in place by two diamond pins. Over this, he wore a fur coat and a beaver hat. [download]

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David Dav Pilkey

David Dav Pilkey 

By: Dennis Abrams 

When you were younger, how often did you get in trouble at school? Did your teacher ever have to yell at you to get you to be quiet and stay quiet? Did you ever have to go sit out in the hallway until you learned to be quiet? Did you ever get sent to the principal? When Dav Pilkey was a kid, this happened almost every day. It’s not that he meant to be bad. He really didn’t. But he just couldn’t help himself. If there was a joke to be made, he made it. If there was a funny noise to be made, he was your guy. If there was a crayon to be shoved up his nose well, he held the record for the number he could stick up there at  one time. And although his classmates loved his antics, his teachers and the school principal felt somewhat differently about the matter. [download]

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Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers
 

By: Amy Sickels

In 1968, Walte r Dean Myers heard about a children’s book contest for African-American writers. Before this, he had never thought about writing a children’s book, even though he loved to write. Myers had been writing poems and short stories since he was a child. Now he was a father of two and was working a full-time job at the U.S. Post Office to support his family. At night, his only free time, he wrote articles and short stories for adults. He thought hard about whether he could write a children’s story for the contest and decided to give it a shot. For his submission, Myers wrote a story called Where Does the Day Go? about an African-American father who takes his son and a few neighborhood kids on a walk to the park. Each child wonders where the sun goes at the end of the day. [download]

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Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot

By: Camille-Yvette Welsch

Humanity is powered by stories. From our earliest days as thinking beings, we employed every available tool to tell each other stories . We danced, drew pictures on the walls of our caves, spoke, and sang. All of this extraordinary effort was designed to entertain, recount the news of the day, explain natural occurrences and then gradually to build religious and cultural traditions and establish the common bonds and continuity that eventually formed civilizations. Stories are the most powerful force in the universe; they are the primary element that has distinguished our evolutionary path. Our love of the story has not diminished with time. Enormous segments of societies are devoted to the art of storytelling. [download]

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