Beatrix Potter

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Did you recognize the illustration in our new logo last week? Did you know who wrote the book it is featured in?

Karen recognized the author/illustrator Beatrix Potter. The illustration is from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

As for the bonus question, why didn’t Beatrix Potter receive all the royalties she should have for this book? It turns out Warne, her publishers, failed to obtain a copyright in the United States. This allowed other publishers to freely distribute her work without paying royalties.

Of course, there is no way to know whether these cheap and readily available copies may not have increased her readership and led to more sales for her later books. What do you think?

Question 2. Can you name the 2011-2013 Children’s Laureate from the U.K.? What is his or her name and favorite genre?

Julia Donaldson was named the U.K. Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate for 2011-13. The award is given to authors/illustrators who have made outstanding contributions to the field of children’s literature.

Starting out as a songwriter, Julia loves poetry. She has been a prolific author, primarily of picture books. The Gruffalo is one of her better known books.

If you aren’t familiar with her work, here are a few of her picture books:

And finally, our mystery author from the archives with a name that is difficult to pronounce name is Eoin Colfer.

Thank you for playing!

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Answers to last week’s trivia:trivia-logo

Question 4. What author was inspired to write is book about an island when he made a map of an imaginary island to entertain his stepson? He said, “It was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully coloured…as I pored upon my map of …the future characters of the book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods;…

Zann was absolutely right, this is a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson, talking about what inspired him to write Treasure Island. I thought the spelling of “coloured” might be a useful hint.

Question 5. This beloved children’s author produced many detailed watercolor illustrations of fungi early in her career and would have considered a career in science if she hadn’t been discouraged by others. Who was this budding mycologist turned author?

Eilonwy and Pann both got this one correct. Beatrix Potter studied fungi, but was disappointed after the results of her first paper were discounted. Later she was proved correct, but by then she was a famous children’s book author.

If you haven’t checked the Peter Rabbit website, it has a lovely page of Beatrix Potter’s fungi.

Question 6. Who spent her early childhood in China and four years in Japan, before taking up writing? (Two of her books were given Newbery Awards.)

The tricky question last week was about Katherine Paterson, author of Newbery Medal winners Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved. She also wrote the Newbery Honor book, The Great Gilly Hopkins. For more about Katherine Paterson, check her website and this video.

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