Siobhan Dowd, author of the incredible A Swift Pure Cry, died on August 21st from breast cancer at age 47.  If you haven’t read her poetic, powerful novel for teens, you really should.  Sad that there won’t be many more books like this coming from her, she had a real gift.

Children’s book illustrator, Bruce Wood is dead at the young age of 34.  Son of Audrey and Don Wood, he has collaborated with his mother on a series of concept books.  He has also seen success on his own with a series of alphabet books.  Wood specialized in illustrations using the computer and led both of his parents to start using computers for illustrations. 

BBC News reports that JK Rowling is back at work writing already. 

“I’m sort of writing two things at the moment,” she said. “One is for children and the other is not for children.”

Rowling, 41, said she expected to drop one of her two
new books, which is what happened when she started writing Harry Potter
and the Philospher’s Stone in the 1990s.

“The weird thing is that this is exactly the way I started writing Harry,” she said.

“I was writing two things simultaneously for a year
before Harry took over. So one will oust the other in due course, and
I’ll know that’s my next thing.”

As a reader of children’s fiction, can I just put in my fervent wish that the one for children wins out!  C’mon Jo, think of the kids!

JK Rowling is going to appear on the Today Show on Thursday and Friday.  Other portions of her interview with Meredith Viera will be on Dateline NBC on Sunday.  The article online tells us who the character was that JK Rowling decided not to kill:

“Mr. Weasley, he was the person who got a reprieve,” Rowling said.
“When I sketched out the books, Mr. Weasley was due to die in Book 5.”

Boy am I glad she spared him!

Rowling also talks about her plans to write a Harry Potter Encyclopedia which will reveal details of characters that were left out of the books.  So prepare your libraries and book stores for another round of Harry Mania!

PhillyBurbs.com has the news that despite Stan Berenstain’s death in 2005, the Berenstain series will continue.  Son Mike Berenstain is an illustrator who writes most of the series now.  In the article, he talks about how Dr. Seuss changed his parents’ work:

It was Geisel who advised Mike’s parents, Stan and
Jan Berenstain — primarily cartoonists — to make the Berenstain Bears a
series rather than a single book. The couple had intended to write
about penguins next.

Imagine that!

School Library Journal has an interview with Lois Lowry in their latest magazine (it is also available online.)  Lowry is one of my favorite authors, as I have probably mentioned here before.  Her Giver and Gossamer are both truly stunning novels that open young readers up to new worlds.  The interview focuses primarily on The Giver, which is a real treat.

Clyde Robert Bulla, author of The Chalk Box Kid and many other novels for children, died on May 23rd at age 93. 

I think this quote from his obituary article sums up his approach to writing for children:

“I’m reaching children at very impressionable age levels — third to
sixth grade, 8 to 11 years old,” Bulla told The Times’ Charles
Hillinger in 1973. “I have to be very careful what I write about.”

Check out this great site on Louisa May Alcott which was created to accompany a PBS documentary on her life.  The site offers information on her life, times and works as well as two image galleries filled with historical photographs.  My favorite is in the second gallery and features the sistes of Little Women as manga superheroes.  Go Jo!