Anne Bustard: Children's Author

From the category archives:

Unknown Birthday

Unknown Birthday: Alia Muhammed Baker

by Anne on September 2, 2010

Alia Muhammed Baker, librarian

20th century-

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt, 2005)

What courage! This is the story of a librarian’s daring rescue of books from her library in Basra during the war in Iraq. Until there is peace, the collection will remain in her care.

Read an interview with Jeanette Winter about the writing of this book.

Unknown Birthday: Josefina Aguliar

by Anne on September 1, 2010

Josefina Aguliar, artist

20th century-

Josefina by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt, 1996)

A day in the life of Oaxaca, Mexico folk-artist Josefina Aguilar comes to life in this treasure about her and her painted ceramic figures, one by one.

If you Google Josefina Aguilar’s name, you can find cool images of her work (for sale.)

Unknown Birthday: Chen Xiefen

by Anne on June 20, 2010

Chen Xiefen, journalist

1883-1923

Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee, illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy (Charlesbridge, 2005)

Chinese women’s rights advocate Xiefen, founder at age 16 of the “Women’s Journal,” also established a girl’s school in her homeland.

From the Minnesota State University at Mankato e-museum, read about the times in which Xiefen lived during the Qing Dynasty.

Unknown Birthday: Billy Wong

by Anne on June 18, 2010

Billy Wong, bullfighter

20th century

El Chino by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1990)

Arizona-born Billy Wong remembered what his father told him-”In America, you can be anything you want to be.” Enchanted by bullfighting, Wong became the first Chinese-American matador.

Read an interview with author/illustrator Allen Say at the Eduplace web site.

Unknown Birthday: Sitting Bull

by Anne on May 1, 2010

Sitting Bull, leader

c. 1831-Dec. 15, 1890

A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by Rocco Baviera (Putnam, 1998)

From “Slow” to “Sitting Bull,” this moving account of the greatest Lakota Sioux warrior’s 1830s childhood shows how he grew into his new name.

The PBS site on New Perspectives on the West offers a biography of Sitting Bull with a number of hot links.