Answers of Children’s Author Trivia Volume 43

We have some famous children’s book authors today.

1. Our first author knew she wanted to be a writer, but postponed her career while teaching. It took being in two serious car accidents in one week to convince her it was time to pursue her dream. Her first book tackled the age-old ritual of dressing for gym class.

One of the consequences of the car accidents was that our author mysteriously developed the ability to write backwards, a skill that she used when autographing her books. Any ideas who she might be?

Paula Danziger‘s books are still popular and remain in print, even though she passed away on July 8, 2004. Her first book, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, is about a troubled young teen, Marcy Lewis, who tries to avoid having to go to the dreaded gym class. Although she wrote a sequel with Marcy Lewis as a main character, There’s a Bat in Bunk Five, it was her younger main character, Amber Brown, who she continued to develop in a long-running series.

By the way, it turns out that Paula Danziger had an over-the-phone critique group with another CAT author, Bruce Coville.

2. Our second question is more straightforward: Who is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2012-2013?

Our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2012-2013 is Walter Dean Myers. Although he dropped out of high school, he has written his way to two Newbery Honor Awards and five Coretta Scott King Awards.

Walter Dean Myers has shown his skills range from gritty stories about soldiers in the Iraq war (Sunrise Over Fallujah) to cheery picture books (Looking Like Me.)

The New York Times has a story about Walter Dean Myers.

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If you are in the mood to play more Children’s Author Trivia, simply click on the icon below for a list of previous questions (or you can click on the “Children’s Author Trivia Questions” category in the left sidebar).

Enjoy!

Children’s Author Trivia Volume 43

It’s time for Children’s Author Trivia again.

1. Our first author knew she wanted to be a writer, but postponed her career while teaching. It took being in two serious car accidents in one week to convince her it was time to pursue her dream. Her first book tackled the age-old ritual of dressing for gym class.

One of the consequences of the car accidents was that our author mysteriously developed the ability to write backwards, a skill that she used when autographing her books. Any ideas who she might be?

2. Our second question is more straightforward: Who is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2012-2013?

Edit:  the answers are now posted.

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If you are in the mood to play more Children’s Author Trivia, simply click on the icon below for a list of previous questions (or you can click on the “Children’s Author Trivia Questions” category in the left sidebar).

Enjoy!

Answers to Children’s Author Trivia Volume 42

The theme this week was authors who used pseudonyms, or pen names. Their literary counterparts sometimes generated controversy or confusion.

1. Our first author has had several pseudonyms to help separate her adult level books from her young adult books, and also from her books for younger children. One of her favorite young adult characters is John Fell, a teen who solves mysteries. One of the mysteries involves changing places with a prep school student. Another involves ventriloquism. Any idea who the author is, or what any of her pseudonyms are?

Liviania recognized our first author by her pseudonym M.E. Kerr. The author’s real name is Marijane Meeker, who has also written under the names Ann Aldrich and Vin Packer for adults, and Mary James for younger children. The use of pseudonyms in this case allows readers to find the author’s books by genre.

2. This author made up a biography to go with his pseudonym, which backfired when the the books she supposedly wrote became popular. He had included some made up titles in the biography and people actually began searching for them. He thought the name he chose was an obvious pseudonym: “Sue Denim.” Do you know who this less-than-serious author might be?

Dav Pilkey used the pen name Sue Denim for his Dumb Bunnies series. His false biography of Sue Denim doesn’t seem like it would fool people into looking for her other titles, but it did according to his confession biography of Sue Denim. Newer editions of the books list Dav as the author.

It is easy to see why the Dumb Bunnies books might generate strong emotions, both pro and con, and why the author might have chosen to use a pseudonym, at least initially.

Dav Pilkey is best known for his Captain Underpants stories.

——————————————————————————————————————————– If you are in the mood to play more Children’s Author Trivia, simply click on the icon below for a list of previous questions (or you can click on the “Children’s Author Trivia Questions” category in the left sidebar). Enjoy!

Children’s Author Trivia Volume 42

Our authors today have used pseudonyms, or pen names.

1. Our first author has had several pseudonyms to help separate her adult level books from her young adult books, and also from her books for younger children. One of her favorite young adult characters is John Fell, a teen who solves mysteries. One of the mysteries involves changing places with a prep school student. Another involves ventriloquism. Any idea who the author is, or what any of her pseudonyms are?

2. This author made up a biography to go with his pseudonym, which backfired when the the books she supposedly wrote became popular. He had included some made up titles in the biography and people actually began searching for them. He thought the name he chose was an obvious pseudonym: “Sue Denim.” Do you know who this less-than-serious author might be?

Please leave us a comment if you have an idea.

Edit:  The answers are now posted.

——————————————————————————————————————————–

If you are in the mood to play more Children’s Author Trivia, simply click on the icon below for a list of previous questions (or you can click on the “Children’s Author Trivia Questions” category in the left sidebar).

Enjoy!