Moss published his first children’s book, Zin! Zin! Zin!, at the age of 69. It uses the instruments in an orchestra to illustrate the concept of counting and the parallel concepts of solos, duets, trios, etc. Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman, the book received a star review from School Library Journal and was awarded the 1996 Caldecott Honor.

In her SLJ review, Jane Marino called the book, “A delight for music classes as well as a great introduction to the concert hall” and noted, “This title will surely be met with applause.”

The book came about when a family member who worked for Simon & Schuster viewed a scrapbook kept by Moss’s wife, Anne, of all the poems he wrote to her and his children on various special occasions. “The book came together magically,” Moss once said. “I look at it as the moment when I integrated my love of books and music into a tangible form that could be shared with the world.”

The author also said that his love of doggerel inspired him to write such lines as “Fine FRENCH HORN, its valves all oiled/Bright and brassy, loops all coiled,” and “FLUTE that sends our soul a-shiver;/FLUTE, that slender, silver sliver.”

The composer and arranger Marvin Hamlisch wrote a score for orchestra to accompany the book and, in 1998, Moss read his work accompanied by Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Moss went on to write two other music-themed books. Our Marching Band (Putnam, 2001) is a story of young instrument-toting hopefuls who transform themselves into an energetic, smartly uniformed band, while Music Is (Putnam, 2003) uses rhymes to talk about the importance of music. In its review of the latter, SLJ notes that the text shows how music “appears in all aspects of our lives, from the mundane ‘music in the elevator,/sometimes music on the phone’ to the exciting ‘Brass or strings, when played with brio,/lift my spirits to the sky.’”

Moss was born in Brooklyn on November 17, 1926, and grew up surrounded by music and books. His father owned a beauty parlor where the radio was always tuned to WQXR (the same station where Moss would later make his career in broadcasting). As a child he frequented a second hand bookshop, where he found Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as adventure stories by Jack London, James Oliver Curwood, and Zane Grey.

At seventeen he joined the Army and, after World War II, he entered the field of radio. He is survived by his wife Anne, four children, and two grandchildren.

In an interview with the Parent’s League of New York, Moss once said that the final lines from Music Is provide a fitting coda to his sentiments about music and its influence on his life:

If there never had been music,
If it never did exist,
What would life be without music?
Think of what we would have missed!

Marc Simont created the cover for SLJ‘s
December 2002 Best Books issue.

Acclaimed children’s book creator Marc Simont, who illustrated nearly 100 children’s books, died on Saturday, July 13. He was 97. His many honors include a Caldecott Medal in 1957 for the art in Janice May Udry’s A Tree is Nice (1956), and Caldecott Honors for illustrating Ruth Krauss’s The Happy Day (1949) and his own The Stray Dog (2001, all HarperCollins).

The Paris native, who was born in 1915, was influenced by his Catalan father—Joseph Simont, a staff illustrator for the magazine L’Illustration—to pursue a career in the arts. He attended art school in Paris and immigrated to the United States at age 19, where he trained at the National Academy of Design in New York, alongside Make Way for the Ducklings Caldecott-winner Robert McCloskey. Simont lived his last days in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

During his long career, the prolific author/illustrator collaborated with publishing heavy hitters such as Ruth Krauss, James Thurber, and Margaret Wise Brown, and his art is represented in collections as far afield as the Kijo Picture Book Museum in Japan. His impact, however, is not limited to the children’s literature sphere. He was selected as the 1997 Illustrator of the Year in his hometown of Catalonia, and The Lakeville Journal, a community newspaper near his recent home in Connecticut, regularly featured his political cartoons.

Luann Toth, managing editor of School Library Journal’s book review, served on the Caldecott Committee that chose The Stray Dog as an honor book in 2002. The heartwarming tale chronicles the adoption of a charming dog by two siblings. “We fell in love with the book’s gentle humor yet distinctive line. Simont’s expressive and gorgeously rendered watercolors capture the emotions and energy of the simple story and make it irresistible,” she shares. “Looking back over his long and amazing career, it’s easy to see Simont’s well-earned spot among the greats of children’s literature.”

Kate Jackson, editor-in-chief at Harper Children’s, remembers Simont as a great illustrator and an even greater person. She met Simont for the first time when he dropped off a manila envelope containing the story and art for The Stray Dog, hoping that the publisher would add it to its list. “Reading the story as I looked through the art, I remember thinking that it was absolutely perfect and beautiful as it was,” she tells SLJ.

From editorial to sales, all of Harper’s departments were keen on the book’s presentation, Jackson says, adding, “Anne Hoppe, who was already a great admirer of his work, volunteered to participate in the editorial process as well. It was an altogether joyful experience: a labor of love for the house. As much as the editorial group cherished him, the designers adored him.”

Philip Nel, children’s literature professor at Kansas State University and biographer, recalls his short but memorable experience with Simont. While researching for a biography on the husband-wife team Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, Nel reached out to the artist about his relationship with the pair. “Simont was the illustrator for Krauss’s The Happy Day; and he was such a gentleman,” Nel says. “He was so generous in sharing his memories of the couple and faxing his correspondence about their projects. His passing marks the end of a certain generation of artists that worked on children’s books even before Maurice Sendak: Syd Hoff, Robert McCloskey, P.D. Eastman, Georges Prosper Remi [Hergé].”

Nel also says was struck by the soft-spoken and kind artist’s willingness to help someone he didn’t know, and how he continued to create children’s books late in life, winning Caldecott Honors more than 50 years apart.

Notably, Simont was also responsible for the art in books for older readers. He completed the unique illustrations in Bette Bao Lord’s In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, and was the longtime collaborator on the “Nate the Great” series (Delacorte) about a child detective and his dog assistant, Sludge. Beverly Horowitz, publisher at Delacorte Press, tells SLJ, “We were deeply saddened to hear the news of Marc’s death. His artwork is iconic to Marjorie Sharmat’s Nate the Great, and will continue to identify the series as a treasured classic to generations of readers.”

Simont illustrated the first 20 books from 1972 to 1998.

Toth described his works as “timeless treasures that will live on for generations to come.”

Adds Jackson, “He was a wonderful, generous, and kind human being, in addition to being so creative. It was such a privilege to know him.”

Simont is survived by his wife, Sarah Dalton Simont, and his son, Marc Dalton Simont.

From The Horn Book: Marc Simont’s Sketchbooks

Best Christmas, a story that first appeared in McCall’s Magazine, starred an unlikely family of children, the Herdmans, who take over a church Christmas pageant (mainly because they heard snacks were served). In the end, the children give an unconventional and surprisingly touching interpretation of the Christmas story. “The Herdmans bring a chaotic sincerity and authenticity to the evening that is truly moving,” said School Library Journal in its review.

In the United Kingdom, the book is known as The Worst Kids in the World (Red Fox, 1996). Robinson went on to write two sequels featuring the Herdmans, The Best School Year Ever (Harper, 1994) and The Best Halloween Ever (HarperCollins, 2004).

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has sold over 800,000 copies and was adapted into a play, first performed in Seattle at the Children’s Theater in 1982. ABC television also produced a television movie of the story in 1983 starring Loretta Swit, for which Robinson wrote the screenplay. Elaine Stritch read the audio version of the book.

In 2012 the book was named the No. 73 Top Children’s Novel in the YA list compiled by SLJ blogger Betsy Bird, based upon recommendations from her readers.

The original 1972 cover.

“She made an original Christmas story that was honestly real, human and touching,” Bird said in her entry. “Her book lasted and lasted and lasted and remains pretty much the top Christmas chapter book for kids out there outside of A Christmas Carol.”

Catherine Balkin, former executive at Harper and founder of Balkin Buddies, which arranges author visits to schools and libraries, says Robinson was “funny, charming, and kind.” Balkin also notes that, “Barbara spent many years going around the country visiting schools and talking to students. This well-loved author will be missed by a great many students, including those who are now adults.”

Robinson was born in Portsmouth, Ohio on October 12, 1927, to Theodore L. and Grace Mooney Webb.  After her father’s death when she was three years old, her mother, a teacher, raised her alone.

She attended Allegheny College, from which she received an honorary doctorate of letters later in life.  In 1949, she married John F. Robinson of Berwyn, PA.

After college, Robinson worked as a librarian in Sewickley, PA. One of her earliest published works is Across from Indian Shore (Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1962).

Robinson is survived by two daughters, Carolyn and Marjorie, and three grandchildren: Tomas, Marcos, and Lucas.

An acclaimed artist in many mediums, Meade is perhaps best known for her intricate woodblock prints, and among children’s librarians for her more than 30 picture books. These include Hush! A Thai Lullaby (Melanie Kroupa/Orchard Books, 1996), written by Mingfong Ho, which was named a Caldecott Honor book in 1997; and John Willy and Freddy McGee (Marshall Cavendish, 1998),  for which she was named an honoree for the Charlotte Zolotow Award for Creative Writing.

“Holly Meade was so special. [Her] warmth and wonderful spirit permeated her whole being—and her art,” Melanie Kroupa tells School Library Journal. “With her own special way of viewing the world she created a style all her own: unpretentious and full of life. In illustrations that reflect her own elegant simplicity, Holly allowed us to step into a story and see the world in a fresh way….The books we did together remain some of my very favorites:  Hush! A Thai Lullaby, Boss of the Plains by Laurie Carlson, and Goose’s Story by Cari Best [an SLJ Star Book in 2002], to name a few. Each is distinctive in its own way thanks to Holly’s vision and illustrations. Her woodcuts of recent years are truly wonderful—so alive and fresh!”

Meade was born in Winchester, Mass., on September 14, 1956.  She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978, and went on to explore a variety of artistic mediums in her work, such as drawing, collage, printmaking, basket making, and fabric design. Though she enjoyed a career as an independent artist, beginning in 1992, she also brought much to the world of children’s books, which she called “the other focus of my work life.” She added woodblock printing to her many talents in 2002, after a workshop with printmaker Hester Stinnett at the Haystack Mountain School.

Her woodblock printing techniques are featured in many of her more recent picture books—such as David Elliott’s series that includes On the Farm (Candlewick, 2008), In the Wild (2010) and In the Sea (2012)—as well as in her stand-alone art works, which can be viewed online via her own Reach Road Gallery site.

Numerous online tributes and memorials have already begun to appear this week from colleagues and friends who have since learned of her death, including one from Curious City, the children’s book consulting company founded by Kirsten Cappy, urging friends and fans to donate copies of her picture books to the Maine Children’s Cancer Center Program (MCCP) in Meade’s honor. “It is utterly heartbreaking to think there will not be another children’s book illustrated by Holly Meade,” Cappy says.

Notes Julie Danielson, co-creator of the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast book blog, “Holly’s work was simply beautiful….may her legacy live on in her exceptional illustration work.”

Meade is survived by her father, Russell Meade; brother, Jeffrey Meade; sister, Andrea Lawson; daughter, Jenny Smick; son, Noah Smick and his wife, Micki; and grandson, Nathan Smick.

“I have never entered a school library for a visit without noticing one of Elaine’s books,” says Alix Finn, author of Towering (HarperTeen, 2013). “Elaine’s boundless energy was an inspiration to many, and her giving personality made her a friend. She will be greatly missed by many.”

This April, she was part of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) School Library Month Community Gallery. “A school library is the jewel of any school. It’s a place where students can learn and grow,” Landau said. “There’s no better place for anyone to be!”

Always an advocate for librarians, she dedicated each book in her “The Best Dogs Ever” (Lerner) series to a different member of the profession, including Carl Harvey, past president of AASL and school librarian at North Elementary School, Noblesville, IN.

“Elaine easily tackled non-fiction topics and made them so understandable for student readers,” Harvey tells School Library Journal.  “She certainly will be missed, but her memory will live on each and every time one of her titles is checked out and enjoyed by a child.”

Another book in the series was dedicated to Diane Chen, who in 2012 said of Landau’s work: “Often when I pick up a nonfiction title that reads clearly and is popular with students, I look to see who the author is and discover…Elaine Landau.”

Says Landau’s editor at Lerner, Sara Hoffman: “There are no words to express the sorrow I feel over the loss of Elaine Landau, an immensely talented longtime Lerner author whom I was also privileged to call a friend. Elaine’s impact on the school and library publishing world is immeasurable, as is her impact on those of us fortunate enough to have known her.”

Many of Ms. Landau’s titles have been included on prestigious awards lists and have also received a number of honors including: ALA/YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, International Reading Association’s Children’s Choice and IRA Young Adult Choice, NCSS/CBC Notable Children’s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies, NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year.

“Besides being an extraordinary nonfiction writer, Elaine was a mentor to many in the Florida SCBWI and her boundless energy and encouragement were an inspiration to fellow writers, many of whom considered a good friend,” says Catherine Balkin, founder of Balkin Buddies, which arranges author visits to schools and libraries. “Elaine’s contributions to children’s non-fiction will live on in her many readers, and those of us who had the privilege to know her personally will miss her greatly.”

Landau is survived by her husband, Norman Pearl, and her son, Michael Pearl.

Photo credit: Kurt Bomze.

Author/illustrator Bernard Waber, creator of the iconic character Lyle the crocodile and more than two dozen picture books for children, died on May 16 after a long illness. He was 91. Waber introduced the debonair Lyle in the classic The House on East 88th Street (1962), which marked its 50th anniversary last year. Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (1965) and several sequels followed, along with numerous other acclaimed titles, such as the well-reviewed Courage (2002), a touching celebration of acts of bravery large and small.

“Bernie Waber has been a cherished member of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt family for decades, and those of us who knew and worked with him are devastated by his death,” says Betsy Groban, SVP and publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. “His warmth, energy, artfulness, elegance, and abiding respect for children were epitomized in his books. Bernie’s gentle and urbane spirit will live on in the many books for children that we are honored to have published.”

Adds Karen Walsh, executive director of publicity, “He was a lovely man, as I’m sure anyone who ever met him would agree, and his books are among the greatest children’s books to ever grace a bookshelf.”

Waber was born in Philadelphia in 1921. He briefly studied finance at the University of Pennsylvania before leaving to serve in the Army during WWII. Later, he enrolled at the Philadelphia College of Art. “It was a decision I never regretted,” Waber once said in an autobiographical essay.

After graduation, he moved with his wife Ethel to New York City, where he landed a job in the promotion department of Condé Nast. On the suggestion of several art directors, he began to submit stories and ideas for children’s books to publishers, and landed a contract with the Houghton Mifflin for Lorenzo (1961), a picture book tale of a very curious fish. He continued in the magazine field for decades while pursuing his love for writing and illustrating children’s books.

Waber collaborated on his final book, Lyle Walks the Dog (2010), with his daughter Paulis.

“In one way or another, I seem to find myself thinking of children’s books most of the time,” Waber once said. “I even enjoy the period when I am between books, for it is then that I am (I hope) susceptible to all manner of adventurous thought….I seem to write best when in motion. Trains, subways, even elevators seem to shake ideas loose from my head. Although I write and illustrate, I believe if forced to choose between the two, I would choose writing. There is a freedom about writing that appeals to me. You can do it almost anywhere—and I have.”

“The McKissacks, Fred and Pat, made my life more difficult by setting amazingly high standards of research and knowledge about African American history and culture,” Walter Dean Myers, noted author and current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, tells School Library Journal. “It is a difficulty for which I will be forever grateful.”

Librarians echo this praise. “Fredrick McKissack was a valued and venerable contributor to the body of nonfiction literature for children,”  Starr LaTronica, outreach and youth services manager for New York’s Four County Library System and president-elect of ALSC, tells SLJ. “His scrupulous research and an eye for specificity and detail blended seamlessly with the narrative composed by his wife Patricia to bring the period or the person to life.”

In these times when nonfiction literature plays such an important role in meeting the Common Core State Standards, the McKissacks’ books play an important role, librarians tell SLJ.

“McKissacks’ titles inspire further inquiries by their breadth, depth, and accuracy,” says Lisa Von Drasek, curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections, University of Minnesota.  “As librarians we often speak of the serendipity of interest, the stumbling across a book then being captured by the story. I am certain that I had no prior knowledge or interest in a history of African-American whalers between 1730 and 1880, yet the Mckissacks were able to weave the threads of abolition, seafaring, economics, and sociology into a riveting history.”

The McKissacks’ book A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter (Walker, 1989), won both the CSK and Jane Adams awards, and it was also named an ALA Notable Book and recognized on the New York Public Library “Books for the Teen Age” list. The couple won a second CSK Award in 1995 for Christmas in the Big House (Scholastic, 1995).

Many other titles by the couple were well received and reviewed over the years. African-American Inventors (Millbrook, 1994), was praised in School Library Journal by reviewer Margaret Hagel, who said, “This title fills a real need; its readable text gives information not often  found in books on inventions or on U.S. history.”

In 1999, Fred went solo with Black Hoops: The History of African Americans in Basketball (Scholastic, 1999). At the time, Richard Luzer said in his SLJ review that McKissack “did not shy away from controversy,” noting that the book “makes a unique and important contribution for this age range and should not be missed.” He also praised it for its candor and historical coverage.

When contributing to the Exquisite Corpse Adventure for the Library of Congress, the pair discussed their collaboration process:

According to Fred, “There is no magic formula. Pat and I talk all the time.”

“After talking through a project,” Pat continued, “We outline it. Then Fred does most of the digging and the research, and I write it up on the computer and run off a hard copy. Fred fact-checks and refines it, and then gives it back to me to make his changes and any more of my own.

“Then we run off another hard copy and keep doing that until it satisfies us both,” Fred added.

He was born Fredrick Lemuel McKissack on August 12, 1939, in Nashville, TN. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, he attended Tennessee State, where his romance with Patricia Carwell blossomed. The couple married in December,1964. They moved to St. Louis, MO, after he accepted a job as a civil engineer, and they resided in the area until his death. In 1982 he sold his contracting business and became a full-time writer with his wife, who survives him.

He is also survived by three sons, Fredrick McKissack Jr. of Fort Wayne, IN, Robert McKissack of St. Louis, and John McKissack of Memphis, TN; and five grandchildren. Donations in memory of McKissack can be made to the National Kidney Foundation and the United Negro College Fund.

From the Mixed-up Files… (Atheneum, 1967), for which Konigsburg also provided illustrations, is perhaps her best-known and most beloved book. The story is about a girl, Claudia, and her younger brother Jamie who run away from their suburban home to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their adventure leads them to unravel a mystery behind a Renaissance sculpture.

At the time of its publication, the book was reviewed by Elva Harmon for SLJ. She wrote, “[This] is the kind of book our increasingly sophisticated pre-teens ask for, and it has almost all they hope for in a book: humor, suspense, intrigue, and their problems acknowledged seriously but not somberly.” The book was adapted twice, in 1973 as a motion picture called The Hideaways with Ingrid Bergman playing Mrs. Frankweiler, and again in 1995 for television, with Lauren Bacall in the title role.

Upon accepting her Newbery for the book, Konigsburg talked about her storytelling and writing process. “[I try to] let the telling be like fudge-ripple ice cream,” she said. “You keep licking the vanilla, but every now and then you come to something richer and deeper and with a stronger flavor.”

Konigsburg once told a school librarian that the Metropolitan Museum was not pleased with her book because it gave too many children the idea of hiding in the museum and taking a dip in the Fountain of the Muses. (The fountain was removed several years ago during a renovation project and now makes its home at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrels Inlet, South Carolina.)

However, 30 years after the book’s publication, the museum finally embraced the book, dedicating an entire issue of Museum Kids to following the footsteps of the books’ characters. In the special Met publication, Konigsburg tells of her initial inspiration: her sighting of a piece of popcorn on a chair in one of the museum’s historical period room displays, which led her to imagine that perhaps someone had snuck past the velvet ropes one night.

She also defends her characters to future museum visitors: “Do you see a beautiful blue silk chair? If you do happen to spot a single piece of popcorn on that chair, I, E. L. Konigsburg, want you to know that neither Claudia nor Jamie left it there. For the past thirty-three years that their spirits have been inhabiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art, they have never been that careless. Never!”

Konigsburg’s first book for kids, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (Atheneum, 1967), went on to receive a Newbery Honor in 1968, the same year as her Newbery Medal for From the Mixed-up Files….  She is the only author in Newbery history to achieve that distinction. The story was inspired by the difficulty Konigsburg’s daughter had in adjusting to her family’s move to Port Chester, NY in Westchester Country. Ruth Hill Viguers, in her Horn Book review, said the book was “full of humor and of situations completely in tune with the imaginations of ten-year-old girls.”

Konigsburg also holds the distinction of longest span of time between winning Newbery Medals. In 1997, 29 years after winning her first Newbery, she was recognized for The View from Saturday (Atheneum, 1996), a story told in the four voices of members of a middle-school quiz bowl team.

Photo credit: Ron Kunzman.

“Careful prose is well adapted into a funny, realistic, caring portrait through clear and varied voices,” wrote Angela Reynolds in her SLJ review at the time. “No bells and whistles are needed to bring this winner to life, just a skilled reading.” Julie Cummins, coordinator of Children’s Services at the New York Public Library, also wrote a review, in it noting, “this sparkling story is a jewel in the author’s crown of outstanding work.”

Two of Konigsburg’s other books were nominated for the National Book Award in the children’s category, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Atheneum, 1973) and Throwing Shadows (Atheneum, 1979), for which she also received an American Book Award nomination.

“She was certainly one of the giants in children’s literature,”  Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and close friend of Koningsburg, tells SLJ. “Each of her books offered readers a little something different, but always with enough humor and mystery to pull them into the larger meaning of her themes. The loss feels heavy right now, but she will live on through her books that will always be with us.”

As word of her death spread, additional tributes began to spring up online from her colleagues in the kid lit community.

“A gifted writer whose books inspired me. One of the most creative people I’ve ever met,” tweeted Judy Blume, while author John Green tweeted, “Konigsburg was one of my first favorite authors, and she remained so: I loved her 2000 novel Silent to the Bone (Atheneum) so much.”

Jo Knowles, author of See You at Harry’s (Candlewick, 2012) tells SLJ, “I don’t think a single child who read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ever experienced a museum the same way again,” she says. “Even now, I sometimes find myself wondering which exhibit I would sleep in if I ever got trapped inside.”

Laurel Snyder, author of Bigger than a Breadbox (Random House, 2011), loved Konigsburg as a child and now as a mother and author feels that, “The kids in her books were such complete individuals. They were so independent, defiant and adventurous, but also thoughtful.”

C.A. London, author of the “Accidental Adventures” (Puffin) series, was influenced by Konigsburg in his own writing. “She was a pioneer in capturing the unique genius in the voices of 12 year olds,” he says. “She did, of course, influence me: In the Accidental Adventures, the series starts with Oliver and Celia, upset by a perceived injustice, deciding to run away. Sound familiar?”

Konigsburg’s wry sense of humor is remembered by those who knew her. Sharron McElmeel, a literacy advocate and children’s and young adult literature specialist, remembers the time when one of Konigsburg’s children came home and told her that her book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth had been an answer in a college bowl trivia contest. “She was thrilled to have such acclaim—until she realized it was a trivia contest,” McElmeel says.

Lee Bennett Hopkins, a poetry anthologist, recalls the time he mentioned to Konigsburg that he was invited to speak somewhere but his schedule was so full that he couldn’t make it. “Dear man,” she told him. “Never tell anyone you ‘can’t make it!’ Tell them you’ll be out of the country at that time. It sounds so much more—exotic!”

Teacher and blogger Monica Edinger recalls being fortunate enough to meet Konigsburg a few times. “She was definitely one of the classiest and smartest people I have ever read or met,” Edinger says. “I hope that her books will continue to provide the same intellectual and aesthetic pleasure for others that they have for me.”

Konigsburg was born February 10, 1930, to Adolph Lobl and Beulah Klein Lobl. She grew up in Farrell, PA, and graduated with a degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.  In 1952, she married Dr. David Konigsburg and moved to Jacksonville, FL. The family relocated several times during Dr. Konigsburg’s career, but eventually retuned to Jacksonville and settled at Ponte Vedra Beach.

Konigsburg wrote and painted throughout her life. In addition to her 16 children’s novels, she illustrated three picture books and published a collection of her speeches. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages, according to her family. She was a featured speaker at schools, universities, and libraries. She is survived by her three children, Paul, Laurie and Ross; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Donations may be made in her honor to the American Heart Association or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Bauer was well known to the library and educational community for her years of presentations with the Bureau of Education and Research (BER) that demonstrated how to bring children and books together. She was also the author of several books on promoting children’s literature and library programming, including Handbook for Storytellers (ALA, 1995), This Way to Books (HW Wilson, 1983), and The Poetry Break: An Annotated Anthology With Ideas for Introducing Children to Poetry (HW Wilson, 1994).

“I take a poetry break because of her,” Hope Baugh, librarian at the Carmel Library (IN), tweeted upon hearing of Bauer’s death.

Dressing in a chicken costume to promote books was not beyond Bauer.

“Caroline taught us all that we can have a blast with books and kids, and [she] gave us permission to do silly, crazy things in our teaching,” Judy Freeman, children’s literature consultant, tells School Library Journal. “She was my reading role model.” When approached by BER to become a presenter, Freeman felt she was too busy. Bauer’s response? “Shut up and just do it,” Freeman recalls. Freeman is currently editing a revision of Handbook for Storytellers, scheduled for a 2014 release.

“Bauer’s Reader’s Theater Handbook  [Presenting Reader's Theater: Plays and Poems to Read Aloud (HW Wilson, 1987)] was my inspiration for a successful program at my school,” posted Beverly Bell Fahey, a retired librarian from Loudon County Public Schools (VA), on Facebook. “She was truly a friend to librarians and her energy and creativity knew no bounds.”

Bauer was born on May 12, 1935, to Abraham and Alice Feller in Washington, D.C., where her father worked for the State Department and helped arrange for the purchase of the property where the United Nations now stands.  Bauer attended the Brearley School in New York City and received her BA from the University of Colorado. She received her PhD from the University of Oregon, where she also was an associate professor of library science. In addition, she worked as a children’s librarian at New York Public Library and as a school librarian for the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale.

In 1967 she married Peter Bauer, a manufacturer, whose business caused them to live abroad, which Caroline loved. For 15 years they lived in Bhattiary, Bangladesh, a town where she fell in love with the children and where she worked to build both a playground and community center for them.

Her daughter, Hilary Wendell, tells SLJ that the best way to honor her mother, who “believed in education as a vehicle for advancement,” was to establish a fund for her work in Bhattiary. “I hope that we can all help her with her vision of providing and safe, magical and wonderful place for the children,” she adds. Donations to the fund can be made here.

Bauer is survived by her daughter and three grandchildren.

“School libraries need to change,” efron wrote in her position statement for her recent AASL candidacy. “I believe school libraries are vital to education. Like the dinosaurs, we need to change to reflect our society, and the needs of our students.”

Says Sara Kelly Johns, AASL past president, “Her energy on behalf of school libraries was non-stop and non-relenting. Eva gave to ‘her’ librarians the tools they needed to be leaders in the school library profession.” Johns also recalls that efron never said “no” to a challenge if it meant learning more and sharing more with others, she tells School Library Journal.

Prior to Nassau BOCES, efron served as an assistant to the school library system director at Eastern Suffolk BOCES and was a high school librarian at Brentwood High School. From 1996 to 1998, she served as president of the New York Library Association’s section of school librarians and was a trustee of the Long Island Library Resources Council from 2004–2009.

Chris Harris of the Genesee Valley BOCES School Library System knew efron as a friend and colleague. “She was a mentor to whom I could turn for honest feedback, professional advice, and lively arguments about critical issues in school libraries,” he tells SLJ.  “She often said our discussions could clear a room of those who didn’t understand the respect behind our arguments.”

Many of efron’s colleagues last spent time with her at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting in Seattle in January. Efron was a constant presence at ALA events and a devotee of SLJ’s own annual library summit, having attended since its inception in 2005.

“Eva introduced me to ALA and the SLJ Summit with pride and a sense of community,” Judi Dzikowski, iSchool field site supervisor at Syracuse University, said in a statement read at efron’s memorial, which was held March 24 in Dix Hills, NY. “She mentored me as we navigated the events, the exhibits, the committees, workshops and all that goes on with energy and always having fun.”

A native of western New York, efron attended Amherst High School. She received her BA degree from New York State University at Stony Brook and her Masters of Library Science from Saint John’s University. She is survived by her daughter Dawn Landry; her grandson Marty Landry; her stepchildren David and Nancy Efron; and her father Hugo Kahn.

Wood devoted her career to exploring the culture and lives of the Native American people of the Southwest, and often found herself inspired by the New Mexico wilderness.

In 1993, she won both the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and an International Reading Association Teacher’s Choice Award for Spirit Walker, an illustrated book of poetry that delves into the Taos Pueblos Indians. School Library Journal  praised Wood’s ability to “[provide] serenity, contemplation, and spiritual richness, experiences that are all too rare in this clamorous age.”

Wood’s work, both for adults and children, was marked by a strong sense of spirituality. Her picture book Old Coyote, a poignant, contemplative tale illustrated by Max Grafe, depicts the last moments of an aging coyote looking back on his life and preparing for his impending death. Inspired by her seven-year-old grandson’s sorrow over the loss of his dog, Wood successfully set out to present a difficult subject with both honesty and compassion. SLJ described the book as a “gentle and sensitive story…delivered in just the right respectful manner.”

In her young adult novel Thunderwoman, Wood melded history and fantasy to tell the story of the Spanish conquest of the Pueblo people.

She brought her dedication to the history of the Pueblos to her nonfiction work as well; in her anthology The Serpent’s Tongue: Prose, Poetry, and Art of the New Mexico Pueblos—which features works from authors such as Will Cather, Tony Hillerman, and others—she collected illustrations, photographs, prose, poetry, and narrative history to explore their history and culture.

“It was my great privilege to work with her on several books, including the amazing magical realist novel Thunderwoman, the beautiful picture book illustrated by Max Grafe about a coyote’s last day, Old Coyote, and her seminal collection The Serpent’s Tongue,” Karen Lotz, president and publisher at Candlewick Press, tells SLJ. “Through these works and others, she tried to share the beauty, ritual, and mystery that she discovered in the Southwest with a global audience.

“Her poems were often read at funerals, because they were keenly penetrating in their emotion, entirely human in scale, and yet so elegantly descriptive of the smallness of that step between our world and the next—where she always envisioned the ancestors as awaiting us. I hope her own passage was as gentle and loving as her work, and I will miss her very much.”

Acclaimed storyteller, folklorist and author Diane Wolkstein died on January 31 following emergency heart surgery while traveling in Taiwan. She was 70.

Both Wolkstein’s storytelling and printed works delved into the culture and mythology of many countries, and she often traveled to a country and spent time there when conducting her research. She was in Taiwan last month working on her most recent project, the epic Chinese story of the Monkey King.

Wolkstein wrote more than 20 books, including The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales (Random House, 1978), Oom Razoon (HarperCollins, 1991), and The Red Lion (Crowell, 1977), all of which were named ALA Notable Books.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth (HarperCollins, 1983), which she co-authored with Samuel Noah Kramer, is considered a classic retelling of the great Sumerian epic.

However, though praised as an author, it was Wolkstein’s talent as a storyteller that won her international fame, and many credit her for reviving interest in the art of storytelling fairly early in her career. “The meaning of life is in stories,” she once said. “It is the way I understand life and it is the way I often connect to people.”

In 1967, she was named the New York City Storyteller in recognition of the storytelling events she staged in the parks around the city. In 1972, she began the first graduate storytelling program in the country at Bank Street College.  She was also instrumental in establishing a summer Saturday morning tradition where stories are told at the base of the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park.  Well versed in the Danish storyteller, she authored an article for School Library Journal, “The Finest Quality Dirt,” in 2005 in honor of Andersen’s 200th birthday. During the 2012 season, she performed at the park four times.

A founding member of both America’s National Storytelling Conference and the Storytelling Center of New York City, she was recognized in 2007 when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg named June 22 of that year “Diane Wolkstein Day” in honor of her 40 years of storytelling for the people of NYC.

Wolkstein also taught mythology at New York University for 18 years, hosted the Stories from Many Lands program on NYC public radio for 13 years, and taught the art of storytelling through her many classes, workshops, and conferences.

“She has been a storytelling idol to me and was an inspiration to become one myself as a children’s librarian,” Gretchen Casseroti, assistant director for public services at Darien Library, CT, tells SLJ. “Her gift of bringing the world’s stories to children will be missed.”

Wolkstein was born on November 11, 1942, in New Jersey. She received degrees from Smith College and Bank Street College. She is survived by her daughter, Rachel Zucker, three grandsons, and her mother Ruth, a librarian. A memorial celebrating her life will be planned for later this year.

Ormerod began her kid-lit career more than 30 years ago after the birth of her first child; previously she taught art and design. Her first book, Sunshine (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1981), a wordless story that follows a little girl through her daily routine, won the 1982 the Mother Goose Award, given to the “the most exciting newcomer to British children’s book illustration.” It was also named the Australian Picture Book of the Year and an ALA Notable Book, and inspired a companion book, Moonlight (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1982). Both books were reissued in 2009 by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

“My books have largely been a celebration and savoring of the positive experience of parenthood,” Ormerod once said about her work. She believed her task in the medium was to be a “visual storyteller”—to observe life and to place life’s images into her books.

In Ballet Sisters: The Duckling and the Swan (Cartwheel, 2007), she used dancing as a pretext to explore the ups and downs of a sisterly relationship. “The words and pictures work well together, and depict, with subtlety and humor, the emotional life of an ordinary family,” School Library Journal said in its review of the book.

She also served as artist for other picture book authors, such as Robie Harris, for which she illustrated I Am Not Going to School Today (Simon & Schuster, 2003) and Goodbye Mousie (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

“The world of children has lost one of the greats,” Harris tells SLJ. “I always did and still feel privileged that Jan illustrated my picture books. How ironic that the first was Goodbye Mousie, a story for young children about death? Her caring, loving, honest, and yet gentle art conveyed the range and the depth of feelings—from disbelief, to sadness, sorrow, to anger and finally some acceptance—that young children have about the loss of a beloved person or pet.”

Harris adds, “Jan thought hard about the stories I wrote and talked with me about almost every idea she had so that our work together would hopefully strike a responsive chord in young children. The result was art that made the stories have meaning, emotion, and depth for young children far beyond words. Thank you for all that and more, Jan.”

Throughout his career, Frasconi wrote and illustrated numerous children’s books, many of which were critically recognized. The American Library Association awarded its Caldecott Honor to his bilingual picture book The House That Jack Built/La Maison que Jacques a Batie (Harcourt, 1958), and a Notable Book Award to his bilingual The Snow and the Sun/La Nieve y el So (Harcourt, 1961). The Snow and the Sun also won a Horn Book Fanfare Award.

Frasconi’s other notable works for children include illustrations for Gabriela Mistral’s Crickets and Frogs: A Fable in Spanish and English (Athenium, 1972), which the American Institute of Graphic Arts presented in its Children’s Book Show from 1973–1974, and Mistral’s The Elephant and His Secret (Atheneum, 1974), which was chosen as a Child Study Association’s Children’s Book of the Year.

In 2005, relying once more on his trademark woodcuts, he illustrated a new edition of Langston Hughes’ poem in the picture book Let America Be America Again (Braziller, 2005). School Library Journal described his portrayal of the poem’s characters as “powerful,” with “especially moving faces” and “expressions that are at once individual and universal.”

Born in 1919 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Frasconi was raised in Uruguay but moved to the United States in 1945 after World War II. At age twelve, he worked as a print-maker’s apprentice and eventually went on to study at the Art Students’ League in New York. He briefly worked as a guard at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, where he later he presented his first solo art show.

Originally inspired by the woodcuts of Paul Gaugin, Frasconi’s own distinguished art career spanned over fifty years. He illustrated more than 100 books, including works by Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges, and his artwork has appeared in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and in exhibitions worldwide.

His major acclaimed work, “The Disappeared,” depicts the torture, incarceration, and deaths of citizens in Uruguay during dictatorship. The dramatic series of woodcuts took him 10 years to complete.`

McDermott’s career spanned a 49-year period and included such acclaimed and diverse folktales as Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti (Holt, 1972), a Caldecott Honor book and an animated film; Arrow to the Sun (Viking, 1974) the Caldecott Medal winner and also an animated film; and Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, (Harcourt, 1993), a Caldecott Honor book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award winner. The film version of Anansi won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival when it debuted, and Wilson Library Bulletin called it one of “the two most popular children’s films” produced that year.

From the beginning of his career, those who worked with McDermott recognized his talent.

“He was a totally independent voice at the time, and his technique and training in film taught him a tightness of scale, bravura use of color, and use of symbolism which was utterly unlike other illustrators of the period,” George Nicholson, McDermott’s editor on Arrow to the Sun, tells SLJ.

And after a long career filled with high-caliber works from start to finish, “There is still no one who equals him in my view,” Nicholson says.

Nicholson was head of children’s publishing at what was then Holt, Rinehart & Winston when he first discovered McDermott at a film festival in 1970, at which he was screening Anansi and another film, The Magic Tree, a folktale of the Congo. Nicholson immediately envisioned the possibilities of transforming both works into beautiful picture books.

“I was bowled over by the several films I saw there which were unlike anything I had even seen,” says Nicholson, who is currently a senior agent at Sterling Lord Literistic. “I was so taken with both Anansi and The Magic Tree that after serious discussions with Gerald about how these films might become books I bought them both.”  They soon realized, however, that—though the American picture book was deeply cinematic in its structure—McDermott had to reconceive the art altogether to capture the pacing and dynamism of the film, he says.

When Nicholson moved to Viking, he worked with McDermott on Arrow to the Sun, which scored a picture book’s most prestigious honor. Notably, winning the Caldecott Medal for the book was something McDermott felt was an honor for both book and film, says Nicholson.

“Gerald was a marvelous storyteller,” Regina Hayes, former publisher of Viking Children’s Books, tells SLJ. “He had a deep knowledge of folklore and myth, and he also had the ability to adapt his artistic style to suit each story, from Native American legend to Irish tall tales.”

McDermott also added many more picture book titles to his expansive global “Trickster Tales” series: Papagayo: The Mischief Maker (Windmill/Wanderer, 1980; reissued by Harcourt, 1992 ), a Brazilian folktale; Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa (Harcourt, 1992); Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest (Harcourt, 1994); Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon (Harcourt, 2001); Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawaii (Harcourt, 2009); and Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India (Harcourt, 2011).

“Gerald McDermott’s trickster tales always worked magic with my 2nd graders. The engaging, accessible text and bright art pulled reader-listeners in,” remembers Mollie Welsh Kruger, former 2^nd grade teacher and current graduate faculty of Bank Street College of Education. “One year, my class created their own stage production of Zomo the Rabbit that left the lower school in stitches.”

Considered in his lifetime an expert in mythology and folktales, McDermott was a disciple of the famed mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell, one friend recalls.

Says Arnold Adoff, children’s poet and husband of the late Virginia Hamilton, award-winning children’s author, “When Virginia and I first entered the world of children’s books, Gerald was one of the first people we met. [He] was…unguarded and open…expansive and excited…as he talked about his ground-breaking visual efforts…he and Virginia talked Joseph Campbell long and deep into the night.”

McDermott was the first Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and a leader of the “Mythological  Toolbox” workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. “Dream weaver, tale spinner, portrayer of visions, interpreter of the human spirit,” the institute says of McDermott on its website. “Through his bold, graphic renderings of timeless tales from around the world, Gerald communicated his deep understanding of the transformative power of myth.”

Another friend, children’s author and editor Lee Bennett Hopkins, remembers McDermott as “infectious, witty, dashing” and “brilliant about the art of bookmaking.” They first met in 1973 when Hopkins worked for Scholastic, and the fledgling artist McDermott was looking for freelance work. “I was lucky to have Gerald as a friend in my life for over forty years,” Hopkins tells SLJ.

Hopkins, among several others who knew and worked with McDermott, has already posted an online tribute to him, though many remembrances are sure to come from those whose lives McDermott touched in the worlds of publishing, filmmaking, and education.

Fans are confident his storytelling legacy will live on, they say. Adds Kruger, “What McDermott did with words and illustrations will continue bringing stories to life in classrooms.”

His first children’s book, the Caldecott Honor Anansi the Spider (Holt, 1972), based upon his animated film, retold the traditional West African tale of the clever and mischievous trickster. In his Caldecott Medal-winning Arrow to the Sun (Viking, 1974), McDermott once more recast one of his animated films in picture book format. The book retold the Pueblo tale of a boy who journeys to the sun to seek his father.

McDermott received both a Caldecott Honor and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, (Harcourt, 1993), a Native American tale of the birth of the sun which School Library Journal described as an “amusing and well-conceived picture book.”

In recent works such as Creation (Dutton, 2003), Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawai’i (2009), and Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India (both Harcourt, 2011), McDermott turned to Aztec, Hawaiian, and Buddhist traditions to continue with his convention of bringing folklore to life.

In addition to his work as an author and illustrator, McDermott regularly shared his views on his craft with others through lectures and presentations. In 2001, he gave several talks in Japan, where his books have long been popular, and in 2003, he presented a discussion on picture book art at the Maui Writers Conference in Hawaii.

Born in 1941 in Detroit, McDermott displayed a passion for art early in life. At the age of four, he took classes at the Detroit Institute of Arts. McDermott went on to study at Cass Tech and then later at Pratt Institute in New York on scholarship. He then started a career as a filmmaker, producing short animated features on folklore, including “Anansi the Spider,” which garnered the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon in 1970.

“Gerald had an unusual talent for reaching both kids and adults; the six trickster tales he published with Harcourt certainly show his ability to reach across generations,” said Jeannette Larson, editorial director of Harcourt Children’s Books, who worked with McDermott. “His grasp of the cultural heritage behind his stories was impeccable, yet his books were never weighed down by his depth of knowledge. Every story is distilled to its essence; each one has a vein of humor that makes it accessible to even the youngest readers. And his artwork! Always stunning.”

Jean Craighead George

Many wonderful authors, illustrators, and others in the world of children’s books passed away last year. Their works have enriched our lives and collections and brought joy to countless children.

School Library Journal regrets any omissions. Please add to our list in the comments section.

January 30 – Bill Wallace, 64, author of more than 30 books, including A Dog Called Kitty (Holiday House, 1980).

February 2 – Joyce Barkhouse, 98, Canadian author of the Pit Pony (Gage, 1989) and other works of historical fiction.

February 3 – John Christopher, 89, British science-fiction author, whose real name was Samuel Youd.  He’s best known for his “Tripods” trilogy (Macmillan).

February 24 – Jan Berenstain, 88, cocreator, with her husband, Stan, of some of the world’s most-beloved kids’ book characters, the Berenstain Bears.

May 4 – Maurice Sendak, 83, one of the most recognizable names in children’s literature.

May 15 – Jean Craighead George, 92, Newbery-winning author and naturalist.

May 25 – Peter D. Sieruta, 53, creator of the popular blog Collecting Children’s Books.

May 26 – Ellen Levine, 73, activist and author of the Caldecott Honor book, Henry’s Freedom Box (Scholastic, 2007).

May 26 – Leo Dillon, 79, the first African American to win the Caldecott Medal.

July 11 – Donald J. Sobol, 87, creator of the popular “Encyclopedia Brown” (T. Nelson) mystery series.

July 12 –Else Homelund Minarik, 91, creator of the “Little Bear” (Harper) series.

July 23 – Margaret Mahy, 76, New Zealand author of more than 100 books.

Josepha Sherman

July 31 – Mollie Hunter, 90, Scottish author of children’s and young adult books.

August 2 – Jean Merrill, 89, author of The Pushcart War (Scott, 1964), one of the 20th century’s best social satires for children.

August 9 – Jose Aruego, 80, illustrator of Leo the Late Bloomer (Windmill, 1971).

August 14 – Remy Charlip, 83, dancer, actor, and an award-winning author and illustrator of more than 30 children’s books.

Irving Adler

August 22 -  Nina Bawden, 87, author of the World War II novel Carrie’s War (Gollancz, 1973).

August 23 – Josepha Sherman, 65, sci-fi and fantasy author.

September 22 – Irving Adler, 99, social activist and prolific author of math and science books for children.

November 23 – Sandra McLeod Humphrey, 76, award-winning author of children’s books on character development.

Sherman’s works include Gleaming Bright (Walker, 1994), a story of a resourceful young princess who goes in search of a magic box to avoid marrying a cruel king, and an adult fantasy, The Shining Falcon (Avon, 1989), a tale of love, hate, and magic that’s filled with Slavic mythology. The book won the 1990 Compton Crook Award, as the best first-time English-language novel in science fiction, fantasy or horror.

Sherman’s interest in folklore was fostered at an early age by J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories.” The essay “turned me on to the fascinating world that is comparative folklore,” she’s quoted as saying in the reference series Something about the Author. “Many of my books and stories reflect my love of folklore.” Writing in School Library Journal’s (SLJ) February 2005 issue, a reviewer described Sherman’s Magic Hoofbeats: Horse Tales from Many Lands (Barefoot, 2004) as a “rich combination of scholarly… historical information and well-told story.”

Sherman lived in New York City for most of her life and was a cousin of classical music conductor and composer Leonard Slatkin. Sherman, a longtime editor at Baen Books, knew and loved classical music as well, and was also an expert on Judaica and a gifted storyteller.

She was “irrepressible, unstoppable, and never quiet about books,” Jane Yolen, a fellow author of folklore and fantasy, told SLJ. Yolen recalls a time when the two were autographing books in a shopping mall as a storm approached. As shoppers hurried by, hoping to get home before the downpour and ignoring the writers, “[Sherman] declared loudly, ‘Where else can you get two famous authors at the same time!’” says Yolen. As a result of her chutzpah, the authors ending up autographing many books that day.

Bawden was born on January 19, 1925, in Ilford, England. Many of her experiences as a child growing up in Essex would serve as inspiration for her novels. Much like the protagonists’ parents of her later novels, Bawden’s father was often absent, and like the title character of Carrie’s War, her best-known novel (Gollancz, 1973), Bawden was evacuated to Wales during World War II. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, and began her career as a writer after marrying Harry Bawden. She would go on to write more than 40 books for both adults and children.

Bawden wrote several books aimed at grown-ups before publishing her first children’s novel, The Secret Passage (Gollancz), originally titled The House of Secrets, in 1963.

Bawden’s unflinchingly honest depictions of children and her willingness to address realistic topics and situations have resonated with readers for years. Carrie’s War addressed themes of guilt, responsibility, and grief from a child’s perspective, and the novel earned Bawden a Phoenix award and a Carnegie commendation. In The Peppermint Pig (Lippincott, 1975), for which Bawden won the Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction, four children reeling from their father’s sudden departure raise a pig, only to confront their pet’s eventual death.

A motif of family conflict ran through Bawden’s work. In her hilarious but poignant novel Granny the Pag (Clarion, 1996), a 12-year-old girl’s life with her eccentric but loving grandmother is disrupted when her previously neglectful parents decide to get involved with her life. The novel was shortlisted for a Carnegie medal, and School Library Journal described it as “a thoughtful, tender look at family values.”

Bawden often drew upon her own personal experiences in her novels. In her twenties, she learned that she had a half-sister who had been sent away to live with cousins. This discovery inspired The Outside Child (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1989), that tale of a 13-year-old girl who, upon realizing that her long-absent father has remarried and had children, sets out to complete her family by finding her younger half siblings.

Similarly, Bawden’s son, Niki, who suffered from schizophrenia and drug abuse until his death at age 33, served as the basis for one of the characters in the Booker Prize shortlisted novel Circles of Deceit (St. Martin’s Press, 1987).

In 2005, Bawden published Dear Austen (Virago), a memoir written in the form of letters to her second husband, Austen Kark, after he died in a train accident.

“Nina was one of the most intelligent, down-to-earth people I ever knew, and a brilliant writer,” says Dina Stevenson, vice president and publisher of Clarion Books. “She was a close friend of the late Dorothy Briley, her original editor in the U.S and my former boss. Back in the days before electronic transmissions, I remember sitting in Dorothy’s office whenever Nina sent a new novel, ready for her to hand me each page when she finished reading it—I was too impatient to wait for the whole manuscript. Nina’s passionate and indomitable spirit in the face of tragedy was truly inspiring.”

Hunter was born in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1922. As a child, she loved books and the Scottish countryside, both of which would later influence her as an author. Though she left school at 14 to help support her family after her father’s death, Hunter continued to educate herself through night school and libraries. It was in the National Library that she first encountered the Scottish folk tales that would feature so heavily in her work.

Her first book, Patrick Kentigern Keenan (Blackie, 1963) (currently published under the title The Smartest Man in Ireland), originally began as stories she made up for her two sons.

Hunter’s books for young adults were generally historical fiction set in Scotland, while her work for children consisted of fantasy and often involved Celtic folklore. Her novel The Kelpie’s Pearls (Funk & Wagnalls, 1964) addressed the myth of the kelpie, a water horse that lures riders into the water to their deaths.

Similarly, in A Stranger Came Ashore (Harper & Row, 1975), a 12-year-old boy suspects that a man staying with his family may be a selkie, or a seal that assumes human form on land according to Scottish legend. Hunter received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year citation for the novel, and School Library Journal named it one of its Best Children’s Books.

In 1974, she published The Stronghold (Harper & Row), a Carnegie award-winning novel set in first-century Scotland written from the point of view of a teenager whose tribe is staving off Roman invaders. In The King’s Swift Rider: A Novel on Robert the Bruce (HarperCollins, 1998), Hunter wrote about Scotland’s struggle for freedom from England in the 14th century. The novel was named an ALA Popular Paperback in 2002, and School Library Journal praised it, saying that Hunter “provided a powerful sense of a very different place and time.”

Though best known for her novels, Hunter also taught writing and children’s literature. In 1975, she received the Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, an honor given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children to an outstanding author, critic, librarian, or teacher. Hunter also lectured throughout the United States that year and in New Zealand the following year.

In addition to her more than 20 fiction books for children and young adults, Hunter published Talent Is Not Enough: Mollie Hunter on Writing for Children (Harper & Row, 1976), a book of five essays based on her lectures in the United States. She explored topics ranging from folklore and fairy tales to children’s book authors’ obligation to truly understand their readers. She also taught writing workshops to both children and adults and served as a writer-in-residence at Dalhousie University in the early 1980s.