Anne Bustard
From the monthly archives:
The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic, 2010)
Told from Twain’s daughter’s point of view, Susy give the inside (and hilarious) scoop on her famous father.
The Hannibal Courier Post looks at the life and works of Samuel Clemens.
Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt (Harcourt, 1994)
Based on her own childhood with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts, Alcott’s most famous work, Little Women was followed by other classics such as Little Men, Jo’s Boys, and Eight Cousins. Alcott also wrote works for adults.
Visit Orchard House, where Alcott lived when writing Little Women.
Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt (Harcourt, 2000)
Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi ruled her country for 47 years. It was said that she loved to read.
Fordham University posts information about the Court Life in China.
The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China by Ed Young (Little Brown and Company, 2011)
Caldecott Medal Award Winner Ed Young grew up in China. This is his story. And of the house his father built. A house that filled with family and friends and strangers during the war. A house that kept them safe. A house overflowing with love and joy.
Learn more about Shanghai, the largest city in the world, here.
The Man Who Named the Clouds by Julie Hannah and Joan Holub, illustrated by Paige Billin-Frye (Albert Whitman, 2006)
From childhood, Howard was an intrepid cloud watcher. He kept weather journals and painted the clouds. As an adult, frustrated because a classification system for clouds did not exist, Howard created one. And it is still in use today.
Float on over to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to see photos of common cloud types and to read about the classification system.
