Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought)

by Kathleen Krull, Kathryn Hewitt (Illustrator)

Overview

In a dynamic offering from the Lives of . . . series, Krull and Hewitt tell all in an assortment of brief biographies of some of literature's most famous and intriguing personas. Read all about the ins and outs of the daily lives of such characters as William Shakespeare, Louisa May Alcott, and Mark Twain in this irresistible installment of a much-loved series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544252882
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	07/01/2014
Series:	Lives of . . . Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	431,317
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	NC1120L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kathleen Krull is well known for her innovative, award-winning nonfiction for young people, including Lives of the Explorers, Lives of the Musicians, and all other books in this popular series illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. She is also the author of Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, as well as The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny) and Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country), both co-written with Paul Brewer and illustrated by Stacy Innerst. She lives in San Diego, California. Visit her online at kathleenkrull.com.
 

Kathryn Hewitt's caricatures of famous figures led kids to dub the Lives of . . . series the "Big Head" books. She has illustrated many books for young readers, some of which she also wrote. She lives in Santa Monica, California. Visit her website at www.kathrynhewitt.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

There’s enough substance here for a quick report or to enliven a longer one. Let’s hope this team continues through all the arts. An irresistible package.”—School Library Journal, starred review

"Another colorful, enthralling excursion into our cultural heritage."—Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

As seductive as Krull and Hewitt's Lives of the Musicians, this compendium of brief biographies of literary luminaries is as much fun as a tte--tte with a gossipy friend. Krull knows exactly how to captivate her audience; she goes right for the juicy stuff, adding to historical fact the kind of chatty incidentals and amusing anecdotes that put flesh and blood on dry literary bones. Hans Christian Andersen, for example, ``was known to hug trees,'' and Edgar Allan Poe, at 27, married his 13-year-old cousin. Emily Dickinson and Mark Twain shared an eccentricity-they both dressed solely in white. Jane Austen ate chocolate for breakfast, and Jack London liked to pose outrageous challenges to his houseguests-swallowing live goldfish, perhaps, or pushing peanuts up their noses. These exuberant thumbnail sketches are ably matched by Hewitt's sophisticated caricatures, which will delight sharp-eyed readers with their many visual references to particulars and oddities about each of the subjects. A must-have for the reference shelf. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This volume profiles 20 authors whose lives we usually only glimpse through the works they left behind. Their foibles and eccentricities are detailed in short biographies, proving that great minds arise from unusual as well as humble circumstances. For instance, we learn who insisted on wearing only white clothing (Emily Dickinson and Mark Twain), and that Emily Bronte was so small her coffin only measured 16 inches across. The authors are arranged in chronological order, beginning with Murasaki Shikibu (The Tale of the Genji) and ending with Isaac Bashevis Singer. Each segment begins with a lovingly crafted caricature of the author, with smaller illustrations sprinkled throughout the text.

Children's Literature - Dr. Judy Rowen

Krull tells about writers as intriguingly as she revealed The Lives of the Musicians. Now kids can understand the inner and outer worlds of sixteen writers spanning the centuries from Murasaki Shikibu who wrote and continually shocked the Japanese court during the first century to Isaac Bashevis Singer who recreated the stories he learned growing up in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw. The short biographies are as full of fact and fun and are accompanied by the telling caricatures drawn by Kathryn Hewitt.

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Gr 4 Up-Employing the lively format that worked so well in Lives of the Musicians (Harcourt, 1993), Krull and Hewitt present the brief histories of 20 classic writers-warts and all. Most are novelists and poets whose names, and possibly whose works, will be familiar to the intended audience. A wide variety of cultures and a generous proportion of women are represented. Krull organizes her biographical sketches chronologically, moving from Japan (Murasaki Shikibu, author of Tale of the Genji) through the centuries with Shakespeare, Cervantes, the Bronts, Twain, Poe, Zora Neale Hurston, and ending with Isaac Bashevis Singer. The glimpses she provides are respectful of their times and influences without being dull. The dry essentials are dealt with in the headings of each chapter. The rest is the juicy stuff-what the writers ate, the pets they kept, what they wore (with a healthy interest in underwear), their writing habits, eccentricities and scandals, and what people thought of them. Brief sections entitled ``Bookmarks'' highlight a few of their works. A one-page glossary of literary terms, a short index, and a child-focused bibliography complete the book. Hewitt maintains a light touch in her full-page caricatures by balancing fully realized facial portraits on small bodies surrounded by representative objects. The handsomely mounted text is larded with small pictorial reminders of the content. There's enough substance here for a quick report or to enliven a longer one. Let's hope this team continues through all the arts. An irresistible package.-Sally Margolis, Deerfield Public Library, IL

School Library Journal

* “There’s enough substance here for a quick report or to enliven a longer one. . . . An irresistible package.”—School Library Journal, starred review

“The stories Krull tells will be enough to whet readers’ appetites for more biography and for the writers’ actual works.”—Booklist

 

"This compendium of brief biographies of literary luminaries is as much fun as a tete-a-tete with a gossipy friend. Krull knows exactly how to captivate her audience; she goes right for the juicy stuff, adding to historical fact the kind of chatty incidentals and amusing anecdotes that put flesh and blood on dry literary bones. . . .These exuberant thumbnail sketches are ably matched by Hewitt’s sophisticated caricatures, which will delight sharp-eyed readers with their many visual references to particulars and oddities about each of the subjects. A must-have for the reference shelf.”—Publishers Weekly

“Another colorful, enthralling excursion into our cultural heritage.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher