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Nancy Larrick
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From: Caroline Parr <CParr>
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:31:14 -0500
I know many of us are marking Nancy's death by reading poetry, reciting poetry, and remembering someone who, as was said at her funeral, did not know the meaning of complacency, and challenged us always to do more, do better, and connect always with young readers.
I wrote my weekly children's book column in honor of Nancy, and with your indulgence have pasted it here as a tribute to her.
This Thanksgiving I'm giving special thanks for a friend to children and books. Nancy Larrick, who died last week at the age of 93, was not only a dear family friend and a mentor, but a renowned writer and editor.
Nancy was a Winchester native who taught school there, worked in publishing in New York, and later taught children's literature at Lehigh University. She made history in 1965 with the publication of her ground-breaking article, "The All-White World of Children's Books." She analyzed more than 5,000 children's books published from 1962d and discovered that only about 6% of them included an African-American child in either text or pictures. Coming out at the height of the Civil Rights movement, her article influenced a generation of editors and publishers to seek out authors and illustrators of color.
Nancy's practical, authoritative guide to children's books, an outgrowth of her doctoral dissertation, was first published in 1958. "A Parent's Guide to Children's Reading, How to Introduce Your Children to Books and the Joys of Reading" went through five editions, guiding thousands of parents to books just right for their children. I was honored when Nancy invited me to make some minor contributions to the final edition in 1982, and appreciated her generosity as well as her tart editorial pen.
Children know her best from her wonderful poetry anthologies. Of the twenty-two poetry books she edited, my favorite remains "Piping Down the Valleys Wild." Her years of working directly with children led her to choose the freshest, most unusually child-pleasing poems for this book. She included humorous poetry, too, but her selections went beyond doggerel. She was not afraid to stretch children's imaginations with poems by Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg, William Shakespeare and Langston Hughes. Well-known poets for children like John Ciardi shared the page with the likes of Mark Van Doren and William Carlos Williams.
"When the Dark Comes Dancing, a Bedtime Poetry Book" features poems about that sometimes fretful time of day. To the youngest child, bedtime can mean separation from the family, so Nancy included a handful of poems about all the creatures in the world settling down to sleep. "The white lamb sleeps in wool/ The ermine sleeps in fur/ But the monkey sleeps in his mommy's arms/ All warm and close to her," writes William Engvik, in a tender poem to soothe the fussy child. Lullabies from around the world, poems about the night sky and moon, and a list of poem and song books for children round out the book.
"Mice are Nice" and its companion volume, "Cats are Cats" were both illustrated by the Caldecott Award-winning Ed Young. His charcoal and pastel illustrations in warm shades of brown, gray and tan expand on the poems without overwhelming them on the page. Nancy's selection of poems ranges from the saucy - "There's cheese to take and plenty of cake/ so long as you're gone when the cat's awake," writes Jack Prelutsky - to the plaintive - "I am so little and gray,/ dear God,/ How can You keep me in mind?" The latter is by the French writer Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, whose book "Prayers from the Ark" was a favorite of Nancy's.
In Nancy's memory, take the time this week to read a poem aloud to a child and remember her, as I do, as a true friend and a good writer.
Caroline S. Parr Youth Services Coordinator Central Rappahannock Regional Library 1201 Caroline St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401 voice: 5407260 / fax: 54073?11 www.LibraryPoint.org
Received on Mon 22 Nov 2004 10:31:14 AM CST
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:31:14 -0500
I know many of us are marking Nancy's death by reading poetry, reciting poetry, and remembering someone who, as was said at her funeral, did not know the meaning of complacency, and challenged us always to do more, do better, and connect always with young readers.
I wrote my weekly children's book column in honor of Nancy, and with your indulgence have pasted it here as a tribute to her.
This Thanksgiving I'm giving special thanks for a friend to children and books. Nancy Larrick, who died last week at the age of 93, was not only a dear family friend and a mentor, but a renowned writer and editor.
Nancy was a Winchester native who taught school there, worked in publishing in New York, and later taught children's literature at Lehigh University. She made history in 1965 with the publication of her ground-breaking article, "The All-White World of Children's Books." She analyzed more than 5,000 children's books published from 1962d and discovered that only about 6% of them included an African-American child in either text or pictures. Coming out at the height of the Civil Rights movement, her article influenced a generation of editors and publishers to seek out authors and illustrators of color.
Nancy's practical, authoritative guide to children's books, an outgrowth of her doctoral dissertation, was first published in 1958. "A Parent's Guide to Children's Reading, How to Introduce Your Children to Books and the Joys of Reading" went through five editions, guiding thousands of parents to books just right for their children. I was honored when Nancy invited me to make some minor contributions to the final edition in 1982, and appreciated her generosity as well as her tart editorial pen.
Children know her best from her wonderful poetry anthologies. Of the twenty-two poetry books she edited, my favorite remains "Piping Down the Valleys Wild." Her years of working directly with children led her to choose the freshest, most unusually child-pleasing poems for this book. She included humorous poetry, too, but her selections went beyond doggerel. She was not afraid to stretch children's imaginations with poems by Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg, William Shakespeare and Langston Hughes. Well-known poets for children like John Ciardi shared the page with the likes of Mark Van Doren and William Carlos Williams.
"When the Dark Comes Dancing, a Bedtime Poetry Book" features poems about that sometimes fretful time of day. To the youngest child, bedtime can mean separation from the family, so Nancy included a handful of poems about all the creatures in the world settling down to sleep. "The white lamb sleeps in wool/ The ermine sleeps in fur/ But the monkey sleeps in his mommy's arms/ All warm and close to her," writes William Engvik, in a tender poem to soothe the fussy child. Lullabies from around the world, poems about the night sky and moon, and a list of poem and song books for children round out the book.
"Mice are Nice" and its companion volume, "Cats are Cats" were both illustrated by the Caldecott Award-winning Ed Young. His charcoal and pastel illustrations in warm shades of brown, gray and tan expand on the poems without overwhelming them on the page. Nancy's selection of poems ranges from the saucy - "There's cheese to take and plenty of cake/ so long as you're gone when the cat's awake," writes Jack Prelutsky - to the plaintive - "I am so little and gray,/ dear God,/ How can You keep me in mind?" The latter is by the French writer Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, whose book "Prayers from the Ark" was a favorite of Nancy's.
In Nancy's memory, take the time this week to read a poem aloud to a child and remember her, as I do, as a true friend and a good writer.
Caroline S. Parr Youth Services Coordinator Central Rappahannock Regional Library 1201 Caroline St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401 voice: 5407260 / fax: 54073?11 www.LibraryPoint.org
Received on Mon 22 Nov 2004 10:31:14 AM CST
