Simple Inspirations: Two Authors That I Adore

These two authors wrote children's books, some picture books and some chapter books. They were both artist, too, and illustrated their own works. The authors are Robert Lawson and Lois Lenski.

They both have strong themes in their books of what gives Americans their greatness: qualities like being God revering, having grit, working hard, along with values like equality, freedom, and holding truth and integrity tightly.

Lois Lenski and Robert Lawson are both Newberry Medal winners. Lois Lenski won the Newberry Medal for Strawberry Girl in 1946. Two of her other books were Newberry honor selections.

Lois Lenski wrote and illustrated the Small series of picture books:

Cowboy Small,

The Little Auto,

The Little Airplane,

The Little Family,

The Little Farm,

The Little Fire Engine,

The Little Sailboat,

The Little Train,

Papa Small,

and Policeman Small.

I really like these Little books. They have a lot of information that young children are capable of learning and understanding about fields and occupations that young children usually find interesting. She tells it in cute stories that are adorable.

She embarked on writing a series of books about the childhoods of children growing up in different regions of the USA. She started with Bayou Suzette in 1943. In 1946 she won a Newberry Medal for Strawberry Girl. It is hard to find the books in this series.

They include:

Bayou Suzette,

Strawberry Girl,

Blue Ridge Billy,

Judy's Journey,

Boom Town Boy,

Cotton In My Sack,

Texas Tomboy,

Prairie School,

Mama Hattie's Girl,

Corn Farm Boy,

San Francisco Boy,

Flood Friday,

House Boat Girl,

Coal Camp Girl,

Shoo Fly Girl,

To Be A Logger,

and Deer Valley Girl.

Lois Lenski also wrote several historical fictions including:

Phoebe Fairchild: Her Story (Newberry Honor),

A-Going to the Westward,

Bound Girl of Cobble Hill,

Ocean-Born Mary,

Blue Berry Corners,

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (Newberry Honor),

and Puritan Adventure.

Robert Lawson, born in 1892, became an illustrator before he became an author. He illustrated such classics as The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, which is a favorite of mine.

His first book that he wrote was published in 1939: Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos.

He wrote several historical fictions in the same vein as Ben and Me, with pets that tell the story of their significant historical figure pal. Most of these books have been hard for me to find at libraries. They include:

Ben and Me
I Discover Columbus
Mr. Revere and I
Captain Kidd's Cat

Robert Lawson won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in They Were Strong and They Were Good in 1941, which he also wrote. He is the only author to win both the Caldecott Medal and the Newberry Medal. (Caldecott Medals are for illustrations and Newberry Medals are for writing.)

He won the Newberry Medal in 1945 for Rabbit Hill.

His other works include:

Just For Fun: A Collection of Stories and Verses
Watchwords of Liberty
Country Colic
Mr. Wilmer
At That Time
Mr. Twigg's Mistake
Robbut: A Tale of Tails
Dick Whittington and His Cat
The Fabulous Flight
Smeller Martin
McWhinney's Jaunt
Edward, Hoppy and Joe
The Tough Winter
The Great Wheel

Having said all that, now I come to the catalyst for writing this blog post. I recently told my dear friend about these two authors that I adore. That following week she found these four books on the discard rack at her local library and she gave them to me!