Notable children’s authors who have recently passed

A number of notable children’s authors have recently passed and their work is now complete. For those who like to read everything by an author, these authors won’t be producing any new works.

Maurice Sendak of Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, among his most well-known, died in early May after a lifetime of illustrating and writing. He was unafraid of depicting children who dreamed and imagined and yes, got in trouble.

Leo Dillon, an illustrator with his wife Diane, was the only individuals to have received consecutive Caldecott medals for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears and Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. Most recently they illustrated re-issue of The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Jean Craighead George is best known for Julie of the Wolves and most recently The Cats of Roxville Station. She was writing nature and survival stories long before they were popular or we even knew what those were.

Jan Berenstain of Stan and Jan Berenstain and The Berenstain Bears passed away in February, about seven years after her husband. They will always be remembered for the lessons they taught and the ways they helped us all deal with childhood traumas, big and small.

And finally, while not a children’s author, we can’t forget Ray Bradbury. Many of us remember reading his stories and books as a teenager before there was young adult literature. He inspired many an author, many an astronaut and more to reach for the stars and our dreams. My introduction to his many worlds was through The Martian Chronicles and not long after that Fahrenheit 451. He was a prolific writer with a work ethic that required 1,000 words a day and often encouraged young writers to write a story a day. He published 27 novels and over 600 short stories in his life and many non-fiction essays for magazines and journals including an article for the New Yorker published only a week before his death.  

Be sure and take a look at the marvelous works created by these illustrious authors and illustrators, they will be missed.

Family gaming will be at the library Thursday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to noon. Come enjoy the cool library basement meeting room and enjoy playing together.

The library has a limited number of free tickets to the Storyland Exhibit at the Minnesota Discovery Center (former Ironworld). Storyland is a statewide traveling exhibit created by the Minnesota Children’s Museum that provides imaginative, book-based experiences for children ages 2 to 8 years old, and models early literacy experiences to parents and other adult caregivers. Tickets are only good until the end of June. Please stop by the library if you would like to visit this interactive, fun exhibit in the next couple of weeks.