Writing and Collecting Children’s Books

Have a collection of Children’s books that I am looking to get rid of. Had them for a long time but now want others to enjoy them instead of just sitting on a shelf. Most still have worth.

Just love children’s books. Wrote a number but only published the one about Saving the Gorilla. Trying to get publishing experience to get a literary agent, I tried to get the article about the Gorilla published with a children’s magazine but after they rejected it, I added the pictures I took of gorillas at Bronx Zoo and made it into a picture book. Actually sold one recently to my surprise on Amazon.

Have written a number of children’s books and even one for teens (When Being Special Isn’t). It began with a Dot can be found on my website. The King of Nowhere, isn’t posted by I wrote it for my Children’s Lit class when getting my master’s back in 1979 and it is based on people trying to find their first job when they have no experience. The King in this tale has no Kingdom but tries his hand of being a King by substituting for a real King. Of course, things don’t go well, and the King of Nowhere goes home feeling like he might just be better off not having a country that might go to war, have a Queen to deal with as well as listening to a lot of subject’s complaints. I even illustrated it but gave the original away to a fellow Art teacher at White Plains High.

It began With a Dot (posted on my website) was written when I took a puppetry class during my undergraduate days at Southern Connecticut during my Junior year. Was also doing community service at an elementary school in New Haven and developed a reading readiness program taught through art and puppetry. I actually presented the story to over 100 people at an event the professors had on using puppetry in the classroom. It was a Grad class, and I had to get permission to take it. I used puppetry when I student taught at elementary school in Stamford back in 1975. I got the placement since I was going to live back home in Yonkers to save Room/Board expenses. Commuted from my home in Yonkers to Stamford every day. It was my last 8 weeks at Southern. I finished my credits for graduation during Dec 1975 though I officially did not graduate till June1976. Took extra courses during each semester of my Junior/Senior year along with summer courses at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry. Southern allowed those with good grades to take up to 21 credits a semester at the same tuition costs. It saved me money to finish a semester early and I even ended up getting with a job in April 1976 in Bridgewater, Maine before I even officially graduated. I like the King of Nowhere knew I had to have experience to teach in anywhere else, so I took a job no one else wanted. I also thought I wanted to live in Maine, but I had only been to the coast. Never heard of Mars Hill and living there was far from life down state or near the coast.

Reading was something my mother pushed us children at an early age. We could not afford many books though we got some at the grocery store on promotions for little money. We got library cards as soon as we could write our names and were frequent users at Will Library in Yonkers. My uncle Joe worked for a publisher in NYC and sometimes he gave us some books he got from work. I loved this. Owning a book was so important to me. Today I read a lot of Horror and Mysteries and the children’s books I collected were from famous adult writers like Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Steven King, Mary Stewart, Toni Morrison, and other famous authors like Sendak. First book I got to know was The Giving Tree by William Faulkner. Read the Sound and the Fury in high school and when I searched the library for other books by the author, there was this children’s book. It was never supposed to be published as it was a gift by Faulkner to his niece. I had trouble finding a first edition but my sister Irene who collected Science Fiction novels, located a copy for me at $75.

Gave people gifts of children’s books but my parents did like the ones I gave them. Gave my father Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss and my mother the Giving Tree by Silverstein. Mom felt that the book was sad as the tree ended up as a bench. Ironically, when Mom and Dad saw Danny Kaye’s grave at Kensico, Mom liked the idea of a bench on her grave. I have their copies now. My Dad hated his book and maybe it reminded him of his age.

My sister also got me a copy of My Pretty Pony by Stephen King, but I sold that one (it was just too scary for me) when I sold a lot of books on Amazon a long time ago. Used to give retiring staff children’s books. Some were well received while others weren’t. I gave my former boss, Dan Woodard, The Purple Crayon. Woodard would always correct my writings with his purple pen. I gave a group of children stories to a school psychologist, and she was just delighted with this gift since she had grandchildren she could read them to.

Family was always important to my mother, and she was responsible for keeping my father in touch with his many cousins, aunts, and uncles. She got this trait from her mother who had two sisters and two brothers. One distant cousin I never knew I had contacted me on Ancestry from our connection with one of my grandmother’s cousins. Didn’t ever meet my mother’s mother since she died when my mother was 16 and I was born a number of years later in 1954. I also didn’t know my father’s father since he died during World War II. I did post the paper I wrote where I interviewed my living grandparents on my website.

My niece used to go through my parents closets when she visited and she found the paper I wrote along with the recordings I made. She used my paper as a source for an assignment she was given about her ancestors.

Like the King of Nowhere, most school districts back in 1975 wanted experienced teachers. Friends from college who ended up going to Ohio for work to get that experience. One came back and got a job where she grew up in CT. She is of course retired. Another ended up getting her masters in the Gifted from Columbia University and got a job in Norwalk. She too has been retired.

I have other collections, but this one was dear to me with my connection to children’s books.  I taught many students how to read and gave them choices in selecting books to read during sustained silent reading that I had twice a week.