2. When asked many years ago what he
most wanted out of life, Shel
Silverstein answered, “Everything.” It
was a characteristic answer from this
elusive, legendary artist and writer
who was born in Chicago on
September 25, 1930 and died in Key
West on May 10, 1999. He wanted
everything out of life, but like the
famous subject of his classic book,
The Giving Tree, he gave everything
he had to give, and kept giving till he
was gone.
What he gave remains: a universe of
songs, books, cartoons, movie scores,
poems, plays and more, all imbued
with his singularly warm humorous
and often bawdy slant on life.
3. He also wrote some of the most
touching and beloved children’s
books of our time, books that always
seem to find themselves on the
shelves of adults as well as kids.
These include Falling Up, Where the
Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic,
The Missing Piece, Uncle Shelby’s
ABZ, A Giraffe and a Half and Shel’s
favorite, Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot
Back.
4.
5. R.L. Stine says he has a great job:
"My job is to give kids the CREEPS!"
R.L.'s books are read all over the
world. So far, he has sold over 350
million books, making him one of the
best-selling children's authors in
history.
He was born in Columbus, Ohio in
1943. His mother, Anne Stine, was a
homemaker and his father, Lewis
Stine, was a shipping clerk. He has a
younger brother and sister - Bill and
Pam. No one in his family ever called
him R.L. Everyone calls him Bob.
When Bob was nine, he found an old
typewriter up in the attic. That
discovery changed his life. He carried
it down to his room and started
typing stories and little joke books.
6. He wrote his first teen horror novel, Blind Date, which became an instant best-
seller. Many scary novels followed, including Beach House, Hit And Run, The
Babysitter, and The Girlfriend.
In 1989 he created the Fear Street series, the best-selling young adult book series
in history. He has written about 100 Fear Street books about teens facing all kinds of
terror.
7.
8.
9. Children's book writer L. Frank Baum
created the popular Wizard of Oz series.
Ruth Plumly Thompson continued to write
the series after his death.
Born in New York in 1856, L. Frank Baum
had his first best-selling children's book
with 1899's Father Goose, His Book. The
following year, Baum scored an even
bigger hit with The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz, and went on to write 13 more Oz
books before his death in 1919. His stories
have formed the basis for such popular
films as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Oz
the Great and Powerful (2013).
In addition to his Oz books, Baum wrote
more children's titles under an array of
pseudonyms. He wrote the Aunt Jane's
Nieces series as Edith Van Dyne among
other projects. In 1910, Baum moved his
family to Hollywood, California, where he
worked to bring his stories to the big
screen. The first movie versions of his Oz
tales were made as short films.
10.
11. Brilliant, playful, and always
respectful of children, Dr. Seuss
charmed his way into the
consciousness of four generations
of youngsters and parents. In the
process, he helped millions of kids
learn to read.
Dr. Seuss was born Theodor
Geisel in Springfield,
Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904.
Geisel published cartoons and
humorous articles for Judge, the
leading humor magazine in
America at that time. His cartoons
also appeared in major magazines
such as Life, Vanity Fair, and
Liberty.
Geisel published his first
children’s book, And to Think That
I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in
1937, after 27 publishers rejected
it.
12. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in
1984, an Academy Award, three
Emmy Awards, three Grammy
Awards, and three Caldecott Honors,
Geisel wrote and illustrated 44
books. While Theodor Geisel died on
September 24, 1991, Dr. Seuss lives
on, inspiring generations of children
of all ages to explore the joys of
reading.
13.
14. Katherine Paterson is the
American author of more than 30
books, including 16 novels for
children and young people. She has
twice won the Newbery Medal, for
Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and
Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. The
Master Puppeteer won the National
Book Award in 1977 and The Great
Gilly Hopkins won the National Book
Award in 1979 and was also a
Newbery Honor Book. For the body
of her work she received the Hans
Christian Andersen Award in 1998,
the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
in 2006, and in 2000 was named a
Living Legend by the Library of
Congress.
She is a vice-president of the National
Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and is
a member of the board of trustees for
Vermont College of Fine Arts.
The Patersons have four grown children and
seven grandchildren. Katherine currently
resides in Vermont with her faithful dog,
Pixie.
15.
16. Author Judy Blume has
written such popular children's
and young adult books as 'Are
You There, God? It's Me,
Margaret' and 'Tales of a Fourth
Grade Nothing.‘
Born in New Jersey in 1938,
Judy Blume began her writing
career in the 1960s. She found
success with the 1970 coming-
of-age story Are You There,
God? It's Me, Margaret, and
cemented her popularity
among young readers with
Blubber (1974) and Forever...
(1975). A proponent of
intellectual freedom, Blume
has also penned such books as
Wifey (1978) and In the
Unlikely Event (2015) for adult
audiences.
17.
18.
19. William Joyce is an American author,
illustrator, and filmmaker. He is the creator
of The Guardians of Childhood books and
the executive producer of the movie Rise of
the Guardians. Plus he is the founder of
Moonbot Studios .
He has written and illustrated over fifty
children's books including George Shrinks,
Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his
Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie
Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and the Brave
Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson.
Joyce is currently working on a series of
novels and picture books, The Guardians of
Childhood, consisting of a total of 13 books.
Joyce has received three Emmys for Rolie
Polie Olie, an animated series based on his
series of children's books that airs on the
Disney Channel. His second television
series, George Shrinks, airs daily on PBS
stations.
Joyce created conceptual characters for
Disney/Pixar's feature films Toy Story (1995)
and A Bug's Life (1998).
