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.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
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!