From the category archives:
Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt(Harcourt, 1994)
Novelist. Poet. Servant in royal court. Japan’s Shikibu is best known as author of The Tale of Genji, one of the earliest published novels of all time.
Read parts of Murasaki Shikibu’s diary online at Penn’s digital library site.
My Prairie Year: Based on the Diary of Elenore Plaisted by Brett Harvey, illustrated by Deborah Ray Kogan (Holiday House, 1986)
From Maine to the Dakotas in 1889, nine-year-old Elenore, describes her family’s life, blizzards, surprise packages from Maine, and wildflowers.
Curious about what happened to Elenore Plaisted? Elenore Plaisted Abbott studied with Howard Pyle and became a children’s book illustrator. Visit the
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee, illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy(Charlesbridge, 2005)
Meet Pandit, an Indian diplomat and first female president of the UN. In a few short paragraphs we learn about her great accomplishments. I love her quote: “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.”
Read up on the United Nations at their web site.
Of Numbers and Stars: The Story of Hypatia by D. Anne Love, illustrated by Pam Paparone (Holiday House, 2006)
Hypatia found her passion in numbers and ideas. This “symbol of a learned women” in fourth century Alexandria inspires. Read what Socrates wrote about Hypatia, plus a few other facts posted on the University of Chicago web site.
{ 0 comments }
Johann Gutenberg, inventorGutenberg by Leonard Everett Fisher (Atheneum, 1993)
The Gutenberg Bible anyone? Setbacks abounded, but Gutenberg ultimately succeeded. He revolutionized printing with the invention of adjustable type, creating mass-produced works for the first time.
Look inside one of the five copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the U.S. at an online exhibit at the Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Then roam through the other associated links.
