From the Birthday Book

Try our Authors and Illustrators area for information about CLN members. There's an alphabetical list as well.

Our alphabetically-arranged Birthday Bios page features authors and illustrators, current and past, with short biographies.

We thank our author and illustrator biography researchers, volunteers who write these informative articles about authors and illustrators, past and present: Lois Thompson Bartholomew, Terri DeGezelle, Juli Friedberg, Heidi Grosch, Sydney Lange, Steve Mudd, Vicki Palmquist, Leslie Greaves Radloff, Karen Ritz, Mary Rude, Julie G. Schuster, Christina Semsch, Martha Valainis

John Wellington (Jack) Kent, was born on March 10, 1920 in Burlington, Iowa. He dropped out of high school to start working as a freelance commercial artist. At age 15, he sold some of his work to Collier's agency. He served in World War II, and then returned to the States to work in a printing plant. In 1950, his first syndicated comic strip appeared: "King Aroo," and it was distributed internationally for the next 15 years. He and his wife, newspaper report June Kilstofte, lived in San Antonio, Texas. In 1968 he began writing and illustrating children's books. He died of leukemia in 1985. His work can be viewed at the Kerlan Collection at the Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota.

—Vicki Palmquist

Born and raised near Baldwin, Wisconsin, Alexandria LaFaye celebrates her birthday on March 9th. Currently an assistant professor Hollins and Hamline Universities, Alexandria has written eight middle-grade novels, three of them featuring Nissa Bergen. Strength of Saints, her third book about Nissa, is her most recent volume in that series. Her book, Edith Shay, is about a young woman from rural Wisconsin who seeks adventure in the world and finds it. Worth, which looks at the orphan train era from the point of view of a farm boy whose family adopts an orphan, won the 2005 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Her most recent novel is Stella Stands Alone.

In her teaching, Alexandria holds classes in children's literature and creative writing, two topics she knows firsthand. She is an associate professor at both Hollins University and Hamline University in the master of fine arts in writing for children and young adults.

She lives in Arkansas, where she enjoys gardening and playing board games.

—Vicki Palmquist

Celebrating her birthday on March 9th, author Ellen Levine is well-known for her many fiction and nonfiction books. She speaks frequently around the country, sharing her joy in research.

Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories was named one of The New York Times Ten Best Children's Books of the Year. Other titles include If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island, I Hate English!, and Secret Missions.

Ms. Levine lives in Salem, New York.

—Vicki Palmquist

Celebrating his birthday on March 8th, Peter Roop has written more than 60 children's books with his wife, Connie. Seven of their books have been selected by Reading Rainbow, including Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. Peter has written extensively for Cricket and Cobblestone magazines.

Named Wisconsin State Teacher of the Year, and recipient of Wisconsin's Laura Ingalls Wilder Book Award,

Peter Roop lives with his wife and two children in Wisconsin.

—Vicki Palmquist

Lore Segal, born on March 8th, 1928 in Vienna, Austria, has written more than 20 books for children and several highly respected novels for adults. We know her best for writing Tell Me a Mitzi and Tell Me a Trudy, and the well-regarded The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. If you have seen the documentary, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, then you are familiar with another side of her work. This is her story, a part of her childhood. She was one of 10,000 Austrian, German, and Czech children whom the British government brought to England, by train, for safety before World War II. In 1938, when she was 10 years old, she was taken from her parents and placed on the Kindertransport. She stayed in Dovercourt Camp in England until a foster home was found for her. This ten-year-old spent much of her time writing to the London refugee committee, pleading with them to bring her parents to England. She was successful in her request. Her parents became a cook and a butler in the south of England. Soon after the war began, her father was taken to the Isle of Man and isolated as a "German-speaking enemy alien." After having a stroke, he was released, but he died during the last week of the War. Lore and her mother moved to the Dominican Republic after the war, and finally to America.

She has taught writing at Columbia, Princeton, the University of Illinois, Bennington College, Sarah Lawrence, and Ohio State. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Segal has published reviews in the New York Times Book Review and stories in The New Yorker. The Chicago Tribune said of her, "Lore Segal is. . . one of those rare people who combine art, eccentricity, honesty, and wisdom and who, by a change of tone, an altered inflection, produce such enchanting effects that the listener is swept along."

—Vicki Palmquist

We wish author Dara Sanders Dokas a happy birthday on March 8th. Born in Minneapolis, she was raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, from which she first graduated with majors in English, as well as Theatre and Drama, and later earned her master's degree and secondary teaching license. She taught junior and senior high at Open School in Saint Paul, where she was also the drama coach. She feels honored for being voted "Most Influential Teacher" two years in a row. Dara's favorite plays are West Side Story and Alice in Wonderland. She's an actress, too, and particularly enjoyed playing "Anita" in West Side Story and "Narrator" in Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Dara has been writing for several years and enjoys writing classes and groups. Her book, Muriel's Red Sweater, was recently published by Chronicle Books.

Dara and her husband are the proud parents of one daughter. Dara is currently working on future books and teaching at the Minnesota Historical Society's Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.

Read more about Dara.

—Vicki Palmquist

Born on March 8, 1859, Kenneth Grahame lived his childhood in the Highlands of Scotland and in England. His father was an attorney, his great-uncle a poet, and his cousin, Anthony Hope, wrote The Prisoner of Zenda. His branch of the family had to deal with his father's alcoholism and his mother's death from scarlet fever. The children were raised by their grandmother near the Thames, in Cookham Dene, which provides the backdrop for his most memorable work, Wind in the Willows. The family's misfortunes meant that Grahame wasn't able to attend University, but his uncle found him a position at the Bank of England. It was during this time that he began writing in earnest, contributing nonfiction articles to newspapers and fiction and poetry to magazines such as the St. James Gazette, the National Observer, and The Yellow Book. In 1893, several of his stories about orphaned children were published as Pagan Papers. Another collection followed in 1896, The Golden Age. Dream Days (1898) included his most famous short story, "The Reluctant Dragon," which several illustrators have made into picture books. He died on July 6, 1932 in Berkshire, England.

—Vicki Palmquist

Jane Dyer, who celebrates her birthday on March 7th, taught kindergarten and second grade, using art, music, and literature to inspire her students. When her husband decided to attend graduate school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jane took a job writing and illustrating lesson activities for the Boston Educational Research Company. Her gift for illustration was noticed.

She has created the best-selling Animal Crackers, illustrated Talking Like the Rain, given us I Love You Like Crazycakes, and numerous books for other authors.

She and her husband live with their two daughters in western Massachusetts.

—Vicki Palmquist

Chris Raschka, described as one of America's foremost children's book creators, celebrates his birthday on March 6th. Chris grew up in Pennsylvania, but came to Northfield, Minnesota to major in biology at St. Olaf's College. He started editorial cartooning for a small newspaper and eventually moved to New York in order to gain more opportunities to illustrate children's books. His first picture book, Charlie Parker Played Bebop, was published in 1992. The loose narrative structure replicates the rhythm and cadence of jazz music. Rascha jettisons realism for a subjective style in order to capture the essence of his stories. The spare imagery and language of Yo! Yes? focuses the reader. Awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1994, the picture book depicts the conversation of two young boys, one black and one white, who form a friendship. Ring! Yo? is a companion volume. In 2006, Chris Raschka won the Caldecott medal for illustrating Norton Juster's text in The Hello, Goodbye WIndow. Chris lives and works in New York City with his wife and young son.

—Karen Ritz

Born on March 6th, Thacher Hurd was destined to create picture books. His parents, author Edith Thacher Hurd and illustrator Clement Hurd, filled his world with things of the imagination. "I loved to just sit and watch my father work and be in that atmosphere of paint smells, color and creativity."

Always considering himself an illustrator, Thacher Hurd turned to writing when he could find no manuscripts to create pictures for. Titles like Art Dog (1998), Zoom City (1998) and the Mama Don't Allow titles of the 1980's have proved that he can indeed do both.

His most recent book is The Sleepy Cadillac, a bedtime story for those who love anything with wheels.

"To make a book exciting, to make the pages turn, to make a child laugh, to bring out a child's sense of wonder; these are what I am aiming at in my books."

—Heidi Grosch

Born on March 5th in Melbourne, Australia, Mem Fox moved to Zimbabwe when she was six months old. In her twenties, she traveled to drama school in London. She married Malcolm Fox in England and they moved to Adelaide, South Australia. Ms. Fox has the singular honor of having created the bestselling picture book in Australia—Possum Magic. Published in 1983, the book has a special place in the hearts of Australian children. A popular speaker on subjects of reading and literacy, Ms. Fox is also the recipient of many medals, among them the 1990 Dromkeen Medal for distinguished services to children's literature.

—Terri DeGezelle

"Do you know an American magazine called Harper's Monthly? There are things in it which strike me dumb with admiration, including sketches of a Quaker town in the olden days by Howard Pyle." Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo (quoted in N.C. Wyeth: a Biography)

Born on March 5, 1853 in Wilmington, Delaware, Howard Pyle is one of America's most famous artists. He is often called the Father of Illustration. When he proved less than enthusiastic about his school studies, his parents let him study, at sixteen, with Belgian artist Van der Weilen in Philadelphia. This was his only formal art training. Three years later, he set up a studio in Wilmington. His first work was published in Scribner's Monthly in 1876, when he was 23. He created illustrations and wrote short stories and poems for many magazines, including Harpers Weekly. His Merry Adventures of Robin Hood was the definitive version for many years. The Lady of Shalott was his first book for children. The edition at right is a sterling example of the influence the Arts & Crafts Movement had on publishing. Perhaps most notably, Pyle founded the Brandywine School of painting, where he taught and influenced some of the most memorable of America's illustrators, artists such as N.C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Maxfield Parrish, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Charlotte Harding (Brown), Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Edward A. Wilson. Considered to be a master of black-and-white engraving, he was the first illustrator to make the move to four-color printing. He and his wife had seven children. In 1910, he moved his family to Florence, Italy so he could study mural painting. In 1911, he contracted a kidney infection and died unexpectedly at the age of 58.

—Vicki Palmquist

Meindert deJong ("Mick") was born in Wierum, Netherlands on March 4, 1906. He emigrated to Grand Rapids, Michigan with his family when he was eight. He graduated with an A.B. from Calvin College in 1928. In World War II, he served in China as historian for the Chinese-American Wing of the 14th Air Force.

He worked with legendary Harper editor, Ursula Nordstrom, and agent Elizabeth Nowell, to publish 27 books for children. His first book was published in 1938, The Big Goose and the Little White Duck.

His name is found on the Newbery Awards list no fewer than five times! The Wheel on the School won the Newbery Medal in 1955. In 1954, his Shadrach and Hurry Home, Candy both won Newbery Honors. He also won Honors for The House of Sixty Fathers in 1957 and Along Came a Dog in 1959. The House of Sixty Fathers took more than seven years from writing to publication because Ms. Nordstrom thought it wasn't good enough in the first several drafts.

In 1962, he became the first American to be honored with the Hans Christian Andersen International Children's Book Medal, the highest award given in children's books. He won the National Book Award in 1969 for Journey From Peppermint Street.

His book manuscripts can be found at Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

Mr. DeJong lived for many years with his wife, Beatrice, at La Colina Cantante, their home outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He retired from writing in 1986 and passed away in 1991 at the age of 85.

As part of his Newbery acceptance speech, Meindert DeJong said, "To the creative writer there is one need, one challenge, and one duty, and it is completely subjective. His only duty is the duty of all art: to trap, as the Chinese philosopher Lu Chui put it, to trap heaven and earth in the cage of form. But before he can perform that duty of art, he has to listen for and to only one challenge: he has to listen to the cry of creativity. But he has to listen to it alone."

—Vicki Palmquist

Dav Pilkey was born on March 4th, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a salesman, his mother an organist at church, and his older sister a skilled tattletale. "I was almost always happy. My parents tell me that I used to laugh in my sleep all the time. When I wasn't laughing, I kept myself busy by drawing. Life was pretty cool when I was little . . . and then school started."

After spending most of kindergarten in the principal's office, Dav was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity. By first grade he was universally recognized as the class clown. He still holds the record for the number of crayons he can stick up his nose at one time!

In elementary school: "I remember one teacher who used to rip up my books and tell me I'd better start taking life more seriously, because I couldn't spend the rest of my days making silly books. Fortunately, I wasn't a very good listener." In high school: "One day my principal took me out of class and said to me, 'I know you think you're special because you can draw, but let me tell you something: artists are a-dime-a-dozen. You will NEVER make a living as an artist!' Those words haunted me for many years. How delightful it was to prove him wrong."

Dav Pilkey went to Kent State University as an art major. One of his professors complimented him on his creative writing skills, and encouraged him to write books. "When I was a kid making silly books out in the hall, I never dreamed that one day I'd be making silly books for a living. The coolest thing is that I used to get in trouble for being the class clown . . . and now it's my job!"

Today, he is best known for his Adventures of Captain Underpants, but he is the author and illustrator of many other books, including Dogzilla and Dog Breath..

—Martha Valainis

Peggy Rathmann celebrates her birthday on March 4th. Peggy was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up in the suburbs. She graduated from Mounds View High School, attended several colleges, and earned a BA in psychology from the University of Minnesota. Peggy studied commercial art at the American Academy in Chicago, fine art at Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, and children's book illustration at Otis Parsons School of Design in LA.

Her first book, Ruby and the Copycat, earned her the "Most Promising New Author" distinction in Publisher's Weekly in 1991. Rathmann received a Caldecott Medal in 1996 for Officer Buckle and Gloria, a picture book about a school safety officer who is upstaged by his canine partner. Her cartoon style with watercolor and ink engages the reader in humor and warmth.

Visit her website at peggyrathmann.com to find out the funny family story behind the book and the "ten minute bedtime tour."

Peggy lives in San Francisco with her husband, but travels the U.S. entertaining children with her hilarious drawing demonstrations and dramatic reading from her books.

—Karen Ritz