Phyllis Whitney, 1903 - 2008

When I was twelve, I couldn't wait to go to the public library to find another Phyllis Whitney book on the shelves, hoping someone had returned one I hadn't yet read. These books were a combination of mystery and light romance that kept me turning pages, lost in another land. Her locales were exotic, her women and girls strong-minded problem-solvers, and her writing was filled with fast-paced adventure.

A prolific author, she published 39 adult suspense novels, 14 books for young adults, 20 children's mysteries, guides to writing, and many, many magazine stories. Her first novel was A Place for Ann, published in 1941 by Houghton Mifflin. It was about a group of worlds who start a business to show what they can do, eventually starting the House of Tomorrow. Her final novel was published in 1997, Amethyst Dreams, published by Crown. That means her publishing career spanned 56 years. She received the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement from the Mystery Writers of America in 1988.

Ms. Whitney was born in Yokohama, Japan, and lived her first fifteen years with her parents in Japan, China, and the Phillipines. In 1918, Ms. Whitney's father died in China and Phyllis and her mother traveled to Berkeley, California, living there and later in San Antonio, Texas. Phyllis dreamed of being a dancer and her mother worked hard to make that dream come true. Ms. Whitney's mother died in San Antonio and Phyllis went to live with her aunt in Chicago, where she graduated from high school and turned her attention to writing. Two of her mysteries for children won Edgar awards, Mystery of the Haunted Pool and Mystery of the Hidden Hand. Three more were nominated for that award, Secret of the Tiger's Eye, Secret of the Missing Footprint, and Mystery of the Scowling Boy.

Phyllis Whitney died on pneumonia at the age of 104 on February 8, 2008.

Another light in the literary world burns less brightly. It is not that the light has disappeared, for this author of more than 60 books leaves a warm radiance that will glow forever. Madeleine L'Engle died on September 6, 2007, at the age of 88. She had been in a nursing home for the last three years.

Although I read many, many books from the time I learned to distinguish letters as words, it wasn't until my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Rausch, read A Wrinkle in Time out loud to our class that I felt the true power that words could have. That book changed my life. It made me want to become a communicator in the way that Madeleine L'Engle reached people. She did this, not by writing for children, but by writing to tell the story she needed to tell. And she did this in a way that felt honest. L'Engle was often quoted as saying, ""In my dreams, I never have an age. I never write for any age group in mind. ... When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work." Her readers felt that respect.

Born on November 29, 1918, Madeleine L'Engle shared her story with her readers in a number of books for children and adults, her Crosswicks Journals, and her reflections on life and faith. Raised by two parents who had professions in the arts, young Madeleine often felt neglected. She spent time in boarding school in Europe and on theater stages in America.

She had books published before A Wrinkle in Time, but it is the wondrous story of that book's publication which is often told as a fireside story of inspiration to yet-unpublished authors. I have heard it said that the manuscript was rejected as many as twenty-six to forty times, depending on the story's teller.

Her books were interconnected, characters in one book knowing or writing to characters in another book. This brought her readers closer into the community of her books, knowing we were just a step away from receiving a letter ourselves. I've always expected to meet Canon Tallis in my travels.

Although I own all of her books, it is Many Waters that supplies the treat of "The L'Engle Family Tree" on its endpapers. Here, readers can see visually how each of the characters in L'Engle's fiction fit into the overall picture.

L'Engle published Two-Part Invention, about her marriage to actor Hugh Franklin at a time when my own marriage benefited from her thoughtful words.

My favorite book is The Arm of the Starfish, because it was the first time that I realized a book could be smart. I admire The Young Unicorns for its handling of tough subjects. Dragons in the Water helped me to understand that one could embrace knowledge in many fields. Perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts from Ms. L'Engle's books: the knowledge that self can be as large and varied and complex as you want it to be.

Madeleine L'Engle was honored with a Newbery Medal, a National Humanities Medal, the Regina Medal, the Kerlan Award, the Margaret A. Edwards Award, and the USM Medallion, among numerous others. Perhaps best of all, she was honored by her legions of readers, hungry for each new novel.

Her books were fewer in the last decade, and often they were explorations of faith and family from a mature writer, but I could always maintain hope that a new book from Madeleine L'Engle would soon be announced. In fact, a new YA book will come out in 2008, entitled The Joys of Love. For this reader, a great sadness fills my heart, knowing that we will no longer hear the thoughts of one of this life's most eloquent writers.

Clyde Robert Bulla, 1914 - 2007

Clyde Robert Bulla, author, died on May 23, 2007, at the age of 93, in his home state of Missouri.

Born on January 9, 1914, on a farm outside King City, Missouri, he said “As soon as I discovered words and what they meant and what they could be made to mean, my path was set.” Determined to be a writer, he often had to stay up late writing after working long hours on the farm.

The author of more than 60 books for children, he wrote about his experiences with life, first in his book The Donkey Cart, published in 1946. This book was his first for children, written only because a member of his by-correspondence writing group encouraged him. Emma Celeste Thibodeaux encouraged Bulla to write for children. She showed his first manuscript to Lois Lenski, who in turn showed it to her editor, Elizabeth Riley at T.Y. Crowell. Riley bought it, Lenski edited it, and a new children’s author was born. Thereafter, Bulla wrote two books each year for Ms. Riley at Crowell. They included books set in countries to which Bulla traveled: Britain, Sweden, Russia, China, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Ireland, and France. He wrote about the American West in Riding the Pony Express.

His other great love was music, which he grew to love by listening to the radio in his bedroom on the farm. Bulla eventually converted some of these operas into stories for children: Stories of Favorite Operas, Stories of Wagner's Niebelung Operas, and Stories of Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. He hoped they would grow to share his passion for the music.

Although he lived in southern California for much of his life, he returned in later years to live in Missouri.

Lloyd Alexander, 1924 - 2007

Lloyd Alexander was responsible for one of those captured-clearly-in-memory moments in this reader's life ... from the time I picked up The Book of Three until the day I finished the last page of The High King, I breathed, ate, slept (laying on the brown tweed American Colonial-style couch in our living room, television off) those five books of The Chronicles of Prydain. Filled with humor, they gave me tantalizing tendrils of Celtic and Welsh mythology, prompting me to read Evangline Walton's Welsh Mabinogion novels and seek out the Mabinogion itself. That's the power of an excellent fantasy writer—you don't want to leave the world they've created.

Lloyd Chudley Alexander was born on January 30, 1924. He was reading by the time he was three, and always with a great fondness for mythology. He didn’t enjoy school, his grades weren’t good, but he worked in a bank to earn his college tuition. He dropped out of college after one term and joined the US Army, serving in Army Intelligence in Europe during WWII. Alexander attended the University of Paris. While there, he was befriended by Gertrude Stein. In Paris, he met and married Janine Denni and the two of them moved to Pennsylvania to raise their daughter, Madeleine.

His first book was And Let the Credit Go, published for adults in 1955. It wasn’t until 1963 that Time Cat was published, beginning his career as a children’s book author. In 1969, the last of the Prydain Chronicles, The High King, was honored with the Newbery Award. His books The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian and Westmark won the National Book Award in 1971 and 1982, respectively. The author of more than forty children’s books, he has earned the title of Grand Master of Fantasy. His last novel, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, will be published by Henry Holt this August.

Mr. Alexander died on May 17, 2007, just two weeks after his wife of 61 years passed away. He had been ill for some time.

“[F]antasy is a good way to show the world as it is. Fantasy can show us the truth about human relationships and moral dilemmas because it works on our emotions on a deeper, symbolic level than realistic fiction. It has the same emotional power as a dream.”

—from The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy by Leonard Marcus (Candlewick Press, 2006)

“I never did find out all I wanted to know about writing and realize I never will. All that writers can do is to keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts. If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.”

—Lloyd Alexander

Philippa Pearce, 1920 - 2006

Philippa Pearce, the author of Tom’s Midnight Garden, one of England’s most-beloved books for children, died on December 21, 2006.

Born January 13, 1920, to a family of long-time flour millers, Ms. Pearce grew up in Mill House, Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England. She loved her childhood on the river and wrote about it often. In her books the real river Cam became the river Say, her hometown became Great Barley, and Cambridge was renamed Castleford, although she chose not include a university in her fictional town.

Ms. Pearce worked for the BBC in their school broadcasting department for thirteen years. In 1950, while recovering from tuberculosis in a Cambridge hospital, she thought she would try her hand at writing to relieve her boredom. She wrote her first book, Minnow on the Say, which was published in 1954. Her second book was Tom’s Midnight Garden, which readers, particularly in England, consider one of the best novels ever written. It won the Carnegie Medal in 1959. In her lifetime, she wrote more than 30 books.

In 1959, to supplement her writing income, she took a job as editor at Clarendon Press, an academic publisher, but found it “exquisitely boring.” On the advice of her book editor, Grace Hogarth of Constable & Co., she joined Andre Deutsch as their children’s editor. Ms. Pearce married Martin Christie in 1963, became pregnant, and then Mr. Christie died when Sally was eight weeks old. The couple had been married for only two years. Ms. Pearce resigned from her editing position in 1967 to write full-time.

She was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an honorary doctor of letters, and was awarded the OBE in 1997 for services to children's literature.

When Ms. Pearce died, she was living in a cottage across the street from her family home, near the garden in which both she and her father once played, and where she set Tom’s Midnight Garden.

Readers remember her stories as unsentimental. “There is very much unpleasantness in childhood that we adults forget—and much that some simply dare not remember," Pearce wrote in The Horn Book. "For, let's face it, a good deal of childhood is strong stuff for adults and totally unsuitable for children."

John Rowe Townsend said of Philippa Pearce "she was the most brilliant of us all."

Mary Stolz, 1920 - 2006

Mary Stolz, one of the first of the young adult novelists, died on December 15, 2006 at the age of 86. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1920, she attended school at Birch Wathen in New York City, Columbia University, and the Katherine Gibbs School. She loved to write from a very early age, served as assistant editor of her school magazine, but stopped writing when she married in 1938 and worked at raising her little boy, Bill.

A prolific writer, she didn’t begin writing until 1949, when she was 39 years old. She was disabled by chronic pain, which intensified after her marriage, until she was housebound. Her doctor advised her to begin writing again. This resulted in her first novel, To Tell Your Love, published in 1950 by Ursula Nordstrom at Harper. She credited her doctor when her illness disappeared. In 1956, she divorced her husband and, in 1965, she married her doctor, Thomas C. Jaleski.

Of her many book, Belling the Tiger (1961) and The Noonday Friends (1965) were Newbery Honor books. The Edge of Next Year (1974) was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Bully of Barkham Street is often listed on “bully book lists,” offering the intriguing viewpoint of the bully.

Ms. Stolz and her husband were long-time residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where they were active environmentalists.

Hilda van Stockum, 1908 - 2006

Hilda van Stockum, children’s book author and illustrator whose books were very popular from the 1930s through the 1950s, passed away on November 1, 2006, at the age of 98. Born in Rotterdam, Holland, on February 9, 1908, her father was a Naval officer and her mother one of the initial proponents of the Montessori educational method. At age five, she wrote and illustrated her first book, making a gift for her younger brother Willem. She studied at the Dublin School of Art, the Amsterdam Academy of Art, and the Corcoran School of Art. In the 1920s, Ms. Van Stockum worked as an illustrator for Browne & Nolan, an Irish publisher. She married her brother’s college roommate, Ervin Ross Marlin, in 1932. He was American and returned with his bride to Washington, DC, where he had a distinguished career with the United Nations and the State Department.

In 1935, May Massee at Viking published Ms. van Stockum’s first children’s book, A Day on Skates: the Story of a Dutch Picnic. This book contained an introduction by Ms. van Stockum’s aunt, Edna St. Vincent Millay. It also received a Newbery Honor.

Her children’s books were well-known throughout the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. The Cottage at Bantry Bay (1938) and its two sequels were set in Ireland, where the author spent a good share of her childhood. The first of the three books about The Mitchells appeared in 1948. It was based on the lives of her own six children and took place in Washington, DC, and Canada. In the 1960s, Ms. Van Stockum wrote two books about the Dutch Resistance during World War II: The Winged Watchman and The Borrowed House were widely read.

Often illustrating her own books, Ms. van Stockum also illustrated versions of classics such as Hans Brinker, Little Women, and Little Men. In 1993, one of Ms. van Stockum’s still lifes, "Pears in a Copper Pot," was chosen to appear on an Irish postage stamp.

From her first published book in 1935 to her last published book in 2001, Ms. van Stockum had a rich and varied career. Her husband of 62 years passed away in 1994. She is survived by her six children and numerous grandchildren. Many of her books are available from Bethlehem Books in North Dakota and on Amazon.com.

For more information about Ms. Van Stockum, please visit her family's tribute site.

Maureen Daly, 1918-2006

In 1942, when Dodd, Mead & Company published Seventeenth Summer, the terms "teen books" and "young adult literature" didn't exist because books for teens didn't exist. Authors had written about teens, but this book about Angie and Jack, two teens who fall in love during a Wisconsin summer, was written by a teen. For decades, it has been a must-read for young readers, a coming-of-age story filled with love and growing up, trying on wings and learning about life. Teen literature would come into its own in the 1960s, but Seventeenth Summer was the herald for books published specifically for this audience.

Maureen Daly was born in 1921 in Castlecaulfield, Ireland. Her family moved to Fond du lac, Wisconsin, when she was quite young. When she was fifteen, she entered a short story in Scholastic's contest. The story, entitled "Fifteen," was published in Scholastic magazine. The next year, she wrote a story entitled "Sixteen," which was included in the O. Henry compilation that year. It was the following year that she began work on Seventeenth Summer, finishing it when she was a senior in college. She entered Dodd, Mead's first intercollegiate literary competition and won first place. First published in 1942, the book has been in print ever since.

Having written an immediate bestseller, Ms. Daly enjoyed the notoriety and reputation that national attention can bring. She wrote for magazines, newspapers, and published several more books. She married William P. McGivern, a crime novelist, in 1946. They raised three children. After Ms. Daly's husband died in 1982, her only daughter died in 1983—both of them lost to cancer. It was then that Ms. Daly wrote another young adult novel, Acts of Love, published in 1986.

She passed away in Palm Desert, California, on September 25, 2006, of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was 85.

Frances Wilbur, 1918-2006

We are sad to announce that CLN member Frances Wilbur passed away quietly in her sleep on August 4, 2006, after a long and protracted illness. She was passionate about writing for children and about literature right to the end. Born in Mankato, Minnesota, she graduated from Beloit College with a degree in English. Employed as a cryptanalyst in the Signal Intelligence Service, she later married a diplomat and lived with her family in Spain and Italy. The mother of four children, she raised six children when she married for the second time to a physician in California. They ran a summer horsemanship camp in Southern California. Her first book, A Guide for Parents of Horse-Crazy Kids, was published in 1990, followed in 1992 by A Horse Called Holiday, a book about life with her own special horse. Frances and Holiday were members of the Rose Bowl Riders Club. Then, in 1998, Frances won the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, which saw the publication of The Dog With Golden Eyes. Her literary legacy lives on in her daughter, Margo Sorenson, CLN member and author of many fiction and nonfiction books for children. Read more about Frances WIlbur.

Tana Hoban, 1918-2006

Award-winning photographer and children's book creator Tana Hoban passed away in Paris on January 27th. Born in Philadelphia in 1918, her father encouraged her to have her own career and enrolled her in art classes when she expressed an interest. She graduated from Moore College of Art in 1938 and took advantage of the John Frederick Lewis Fellowship to study art in Europe. She married Edward Gollab in 1939; they opened a photography studio in 1946. Photography was Hoban's chosen mode of artistic expression and she excelled at it. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and numerous museums througout the world. In 1959, she was named one of the Top Ten Women Photographers in the US by the Professional Photographers of America. In 1970, she published her first book of photography for children. Many of her books are wordless, using photos to teach concepts. Five of her books are listed as ALA Notables: Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? (1978), Take Another Look (1981), Round & Round & Round (1981), 1, 2, 3 (1985), and Shadows and Reflections (1990). Ms. Hoban was also an award-winning filmmaker. She received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater. Her original work can be studied at the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Her brother Russell Hoban is the author of books such as Bread and Jam for Frances, as well as books for adults.

Martha Alexander, 1921-2006

Author and illustrator of more than 50 books, Martha Alexander passed away on January 31st at the age of 85. Born in Georgia, Ms. Alexander attended the Cincinnati Academy of Art. She was already a grandmother by the time she had her first book published in 1966: Come and See Me by Mary Kennedy was published by Harper & Row. Ms. Alexander may be best known for her Blackboard Bear series, inspired by one of her grandchildren. The book she most enjoyed illustrating is A, You're Adorable, based on the 1940s novelty song. She lived in Honolulu, Hawaii at the time of her death, where she was still illustrating despite failing eyesight. She is survived by two children, eight grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Doris Pagel, exceptional librarian and professor of library media education at Minnesota State University Mankato. She helped to found the Center for Children's and Young Adult Books (CCYAB) at MSUM. Dr. Pagel died on January 17, 2006, at the age of 77.

A tireless advocate for children's books and libraries, Dr. Pagel established the Maud Hart Lovelace Award, the winner of which the children of Minnesota choose each year.

She was awarded the 1992 Kay Sexton Award given by the Minnesota Humanities Commission for her dedication and patience in gathering the materials for Authors and Illustrators as Program Resources: Minnesota Creators of Juvenile Books.

Dr. Pagel was president of the Minnesota Association of School Librarians from 1975 to 1976 and named Librarian of the Year in 1979 by the Minnesota Library Association.

A charter member of Children's Literature Network, and an inspiration for the organization, Doris was always interested in seeing that teachers and librarians had the resources they need to continue bringing children and books together. We will miss Dr. Pagel. Her work will continue, thanks to her leadership, enthusiasm, and energy.

John Langstaff, 1920 - 2005

Born on Christmas Eve in 1920, John Langstaff lived a life of music. He studied at the Juilliard School, beginning his career as a concert baritone. He made several folk recordings for George Martin, the Beatles’ eventual producer. He is most famous for “A Christmas Masque of Traditional Revels,” first performed in New York in 1957. The Revels was a Hallmark Hall of Fame Special in 1966. In 1971, Langstaff brought his Revels to Harvard University and it has been performed there each year. Today, there are 11 Revels companies performing in cities throughout the United States. Langstaff felt strongly about community and participation in music, that music brings us together, no matter how diverse we are. The Revels incorporate the traditions of many cultures and encourage the audience to sing along.

Mr. Langstaff taught music to children for more than 20 years, considering it vitally important to spread his love of music. "I never saw anyone enthuse children so easily. He could make any kid sing, and he never dumbed-down the material. He had an innate understanding of what kids like," said Patrick Swanson, artistic director of the Revels.

In the children’s literature field, he is best known as the author of the 1955 Caldecott-winning Frog Went A-Courtin’, illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky (Harcourt). He adapted many traditional songs as picture books, including Over in the Meadow, retold myths, including Saint George and the Dragon, and worked with Ashley Bryan on two collections of African American spirituals, one of them being What a Morning!

Langstaff hosted two children’s television series, “Making Music” on the BBC and “Children Explore Books” on NBC.

John Langstaff suffered a stroke on December 13th while visiting his daughter in Switzerland. He is survived by his wife Nancy, five children, and many grandchildren.

Margaret Hodges, 1911 - 2005

We are saddened to learn that Caldecott medal-winning author Margaret Hodges died on December 13, 2005, at the age of 94.

Sarah Margaret Moore Hodges, known professionally as Margaret Hodges, was born on July 26, 1911, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her mother died six months after she was born, so Margaret was raised by her father and an older cousin. Margaret learned the art of storytelling from her father and a Sunday school teacher, Eleanor Kirby. She began writing at an early age, selling a poem to St. Nicholas magazine when she was quite young.

Margaret, called Peggy by her friends, was educated at Tudor Hall, a prep school in Indianapolis. It was here that she met Fletcher Hodges, a Harvard man, to whom she became engaged in 1928. She studied English at Vassar College and acted in their theater productions. The Stanislavsky Method was relatively new at the time and Margaret learned to empathize with her characters. This would serve her richly in her storytelling and writing. Fletcher and Margaret married in 1932 after Margaret graduated from Vassar. Fletcher took a job cataloguing the works of Stephen Foster and eventually became the curator of the Stephen Foster Memorial at the University of Pittsburgh, a position which he held for 50 years.

In Pittsburgh, Margaret volunteered at the Carnegie Library. In storytelling sessions, she retold Arthurian legends for the library’s young patrons. She wrote scripts for several radio programs, which eventually led to “Tell Me a Story,” a nationally broadcast radio program originating from Pittsburgh’s WQED. Margaret’s work at the library was inspiring to her and in 1958 she earned her master of library science from Carnegie Institute of Technology. She worked at the library until 1964, when she left to join Head Start as the Story Specialist for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Mrs. Hodges also began teaching courses for the Library Science program at the University of Pittsburgh, from which she retired as professor emeritus in 1978.

One of her enduring legacies will be the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room at the University of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Hodges studied folklore and storytelling with Elizabeth Nesbitt during her master’s program in library science. Mrs. Hodges established the Room in 1976 to honor her former teacher. Today, the Room is a repository for more than 14,000 books, manuscripts, and original illustrations.

She was a preservationist through and through, finding beauty and joy in the old stories, retelling them for new generations. Although she wrote her own stories, she was perhaps most appreciated for the many folk stories, legends, and myths to which she brought fresh life. She published her first book, One Little Drum, with Follett Publishing in 1958. For the next 16 years, she published many books about boys, drawing on her own experiences and those of her sons.

Mr. and Mrs. Hodges began to travel abroad in 1968 and Margaret collected the stories that she would later publish. Greek, Norse, Irish, Scottish, English, Roman, they all intrigued her. She kept company with other folklorists, among them Kate Briggs, the British storyteller who co-founded Holiday House. Margaret admired, and was inspired by, famous story collectors such as Merriam Sherwood, Lafcadio Hearn, and Joseph Campbell.

In this richly textured life, it seems almost a footnote to add that Margaret Hodges’ book, St. George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, received the Caldecott Award in 1984.

There are still three Margaret Hodges’ books awaiting publication. Dick Whittington and His Cat, a new retelling of this time-honored story, will be published by Holiday House this spring. Moses will be published by Harcourt in the fall of 2006 and The Wee Christmas Cabin will be published by Holiday House in 2007.

She is survived by her husband Fletcher, 99, and her three sons. Contributions are suggested to the Margaret Hodges Scholarship Fund, School of Information Sciences, 135 N. Bellefield Ave., Pittsburgh 15260 or the Nesbitt Room, University of Pittsburgh Library System, Pittsburgh 15260.

Stan Berenstain, 1923 - 2005

We learned that Stan Berenstain passed away on Saturday, November 26th. Together with Jan Berenstain, and lately their sons Leo and Michael, they were the authors of more than 200 books about The Berenstain Bears.

Mr. Berenstain was born on September 29, 1923, so he was 82 years young when he died. He graduated from West Philadelphia High School. The Berenstains met at a Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art drawing class in 1941. Each liked the way the other drew, but they soon discovered that they also liked the theater, going to museums, reading, and sports. World War II interrupted their growing friendship. Stan went into the Army, where he was assigned to be a medical illustrator at an Army plastic surgery center in Indiana. Jan worked drawing engineering plans for military aircraft manufacturers. Shortly after Stan was discharged from the Army, the two friends married. For about one year, they submitted cartoons to national magazines before they broke into the big time: Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, and McCalls. In 1961, their friend Theodor Giesel, a/k/a Dr. Seuss, persuaded them to try illustrating children's books. Their first book, The Big Honey Hunt, was published by Random House in 1962.

They were parents and big fans of reading and literacy, so their books naturally focused on raising children, family life, and the challenges of childhood. With their sons, Leo and Michael, they have created a lasting legacy of books, television programs, movies, and learning tools.

Stan and Jan Berenstain's autobiography, Down a Sunny Dirt Road, was published by Random House in 2002. The family resided in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for much of their married life.

Catherine Woolley, 1904 - 2005

Catherine Woolley, who also wrote under the name Jane Thayer, passed away on Saturday, July 30, 2005, at her home in Truro, Massachusetts. You may remember her for her Ginnie and Geneva series. She was the author of 87 books for children. Her first was I Like Trains, published in 1944, and her last was Writing for Children, published in 1989.

Born in Chicago, Ms. Woolley grew up in Passaic, New Jersey. She graduated from Barnard College and the University of California in Los Angeles, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1927. Her father, Edward Mott Wooley, was a newspaperman in the late 1800s.

Ms. Woolley worked in public relations in New York until the 1930s when she moved back to live with her parents in Passaic during the Great Depression. She lived in Passaic until she was 60, then she moved to Cape Cod. In Truro, the reading room at the public library is named after Ms. Woolley. She was an active participant in charitable, government, and library functions for many years.

Her books are fondly remembered by many. She wrote books about Ginnie, Geneva, Libby, and Cathy. Her Gus the Ghost series was immensely popular. In the 1980s, Ruby-Spears Productions created four half-hour animated specials for ABC based on her book, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy. “She was a very strong lady. 'She worked tirelessly for children. She was a real child advocate,” said Meg Royka, director of the Truro Public Library.

Ms. Woolley died at the age of 100. Her niece, Betsy Drinkwater, said that Ms. Woolley, a lifelong Democrat, wanted to live long enough to vote in the 2004 election. She accomplished that goal.

Her papers and writings are in the archives of the University of Oregon. Memorial donations may be made to the Catherine Woolley Children's Room, Truro Public Library, P.O. Box 357, North Truro, MA 02652.

James Haskins, 1942 - 2005

We are sad to inform you that James Haskins has died at the age of 63 in his home in Manhattan.

Back in 1967, this school teacher kept a journal of his experiences in a school in Harlem, noting that the decrepit building, the poverty level of the children, and the bureaucracy created an environment which diminished the children and made it all but impossible for them to learn. Published in 1969 as Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher, the book opened the eyes of many. Ronald Gross of The New York Times Book Review wrote, "the saddest book on education I have ever read ... By its truthfulness alone does it command our concern. The book is like a weapon—cold, bunt, painful."

Observation led him to believe that African American children had a harder time learning without books that raised their self-esteem. "If my teachers had followed the curriculum," he said, "I would have grown up thinking that blacks had never done anything in the history of the world except be slaves. I knew exactly what I wanted to write—books about current events, black history, and important black peole so that students could understand the larger world around them. Books written on a level that students could understand."

He went on to publish more than 100 books, many for children and a few for adults. The Story of Stevie Wonder won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1976. Three of his books received a Coretta Scott King honor. Black Music in America, published in 1989, and The March on Washington, published in 1994, received the Carter G. Woodson award for young adult nonfiction.

Born in Demopolis, Alabama in 1941, Mr. Haskins grew up in Boston and received his degrees from Georgetown University and the University of New Mexico. A professor of English at the University of Florida in Gainesville since 1977, he was on sabbatical in Manhattan when he passed away.

Barbara Knutson, 1959 - 2005

Barbara Knutson, author and illustrator, passed away on Saturday, May 7th. She will be remembered for her wonderful books of folk tales gathered during her sojourns in South America and Africa.

In particular, her most recent book Love and Roast Chicken (Carolrhoda) was honored as an ALA Notable Book, given starred reviews by The Horn Book and Kirkus Reviews, and was a Minnesota Book Award nominee. Two of her previous books, Sungura and Leopard and How the Guinea Fowl Got His Spots, were given the Minnesota Book Award. She was a frequent illustrator for Carolrhoda, Lerner Books, Liturgical Press, and AugsburgFortress Press. Barbara's artwork graces the cover of the most recent issue of Cricket magazine.

For all those who knew her, she will be remembered as an avid volunteer, teacher, and multi-talented artist.

Funeral details will be found in the Minneapolis StarTribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press on Thursday or Friday of this week. Information about memorials will be included with that announcement.

Our sympathies are extended to her family, friends, and all those who admired her books.

Elizabeth Orton Jones, 1910 - 2005

Ms. Jones passed away on Tuesday, May 10th, near her long-time home in Mason, New Hampshire. A very young 95-year-old, she frequently worked with the children of New Hampshire, writing, teaching, directing plays, painting murals, and sharing her immense talents.

She was born on June 25, 1910, in Highland Park, Illinois. Her father was a violinist and her mother a writer. She and her mother would collaborate on several books. Ms. Jones graduated from the University of Chicago in 1932, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and attended Ecole des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France. She spent several years abroad. When she returned, she realized it was the images of children that remained in her mind from the countries she had visited. She wrote and illustrated her first book in 1937, Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins.

Ms. Jones created more than 20 books for children. In 1944, Small Rain: Verses from the Bible won a Caldecott Honor. Edited by her mother, Jessie Mae Orton, the book remained a favorite on children's bookshelves for many years. In the very next year, Prayer for a Child won the Caldecott Medal. Written by Rachel Field, this book is still available. How Far Is It to Bethlehem? and Big Susan are other titles that long-time readers might remember.

Ms. Jones is perhaps best-known for book, Twig, a novel about a little girl whose life and surroundings in the city are uninspiring. She finds a tomato can in the alley and turns it into a home for fairies. In fact, Ms. Jones was known as Twig to all who loved her and that, by all accounts, was a prodigious number of people.

Charlotte Huck, 1922 - 2005

We mourn the passing of Charlotte Huck, age 82, who was a respected professor of children's literature at Ohio State University for more than 30 years, influencing scores of teachers who carried literature into their classrooms. In 1961 she published Children's Literature in the Classroom and in 1976 began a quarterly review. After retiring in 1988, she moved to Redlands, California, where she authored five children's books, including Princess Furball and Secret Places. Her annual Charlotte Huck Children's Literature Festival hosted many notables.

"We must keep reading aloud to children," she advised teachers at the 1998 festival. "If you're not reading aloud to them, you're not teaching reading. The story is what motivates children to want to read."

Ted Rand, 1916 - 2005

Ted Rand, illustrator of children's books, died March 12 in Seattle at the age of 89 after a long battle with cancer.

Born on Mercer Island, WA in 1916, Rand spent his early years travelling the world before becoming a graphic artist at Frederick & Nelson and the Bon Marché, then co-founding the company Graphic Studios. Rand taught illustration part-time at the University of Washington for twenty years before beginning his career in children's books in his 60s. Rand illustrated 78 children's books, working with his wife, Gloria Rand, on the Salty Dog series, and with authors Eve Bunting, Jean Craighead George, and Bill Martin Jr., among others. His 2004 book with Jack Prelutsky, If Not for the Cat, is a truly amazing book. The latest Rand collaboration, A Pen Pal for Max, will be published this fall by Henry Holt.

Rand will be awarded posthumously the Kerlan Award in May of 2005.