Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2003
Maurice Sendak, writer/illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and Really Rosie, among many others, once said, "You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them."
Several Lawrence alumni — and please let us know if we've missed anyone — are practitioners of the high art of writing books of interest to children.
Betty Ren Wright, M-D '49, a long-time children's book editor, wrote the text for 35 picture-story books and also has published adult short stories in such magazines as Redbook and the Ladies Home Journal. Since 1976 she has concentrated on writing novels for young readers, many of them ghost stories. Her third book, The Dollhouse Murders, was a nominee in the juvenile category of the 1983 Edgar Awards of the Mystery Writers of America, won the Texas Bluebonnet Award, and was made into a television movie in 1992.
Nancy Warren Ferrell, '54, an Alaska-based author of notable versatility, has written several books of nonfiction for young readers, in addition to fiction and nonfiction in children's magazines and adult nonfiction in magazines. Her books have included The Fishing Industry, New World of Amateur Radio, Alaska in Motion, and Trail to Little Big Horn, among others. The latest, Alaska's Heroes: A Call to Courage, was published in October 2002. She has been honored by the City of Juneau and the Alaska Geographic Alliance for her regional books.
Peter G. and Connie Betzer Roop, both '73, have written over 60 children's books, both historical fiction and nonfiction, seven of which have been selections of television's "Reading Rainbow," including Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. Peter, a former Wisconsin State Teacher of the Year, now writes and speaks full-time and, in 2001, visited schools in 22 states and talked with over 50,000 students. Connie, a high school environmental science teacher, has been honored by the AAUW and with a Kohl Education Foundation Award for Exceptional Teaching. Together they received Wisconsin's Laura Ingalls Wilder Book Award and have written for nine- to 12-year-olds on such figures as Sacagawea, George Washington, and Susan B. Anthony and on topics ranging from whales and dolphins to the culture and language of the Cherokee.
Kathleen Krull, '74, another erstwhile children's book editor, started writing her own books over a decade ago. Her strikingly eclectic bibliography is highlighted by the "Lives of" series of biographies of famous people, including Lives of the Musicians and Lives of Extraordinary Women. Other Krull books share with young readers some of the author's own wide-ranging interests, from music (Songs of Praise) to civics (A Kids' Guide to America's Bill of Rights) to hair (this year's Clip, Clip, Clip, done in collaboration with her husband, illustrator Paul Brewer).