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Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane: The Story of Six Novels, Three Notebooks, A Writing Box, and One Clever Girl
By Deborah Hopkinson, Illustrated by Qin Leng
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers.
But before that, she was just an ordinary girl.
In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy; if you had met her back then, you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you.
Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said, and locked those observations away for safekeeping.
Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father’s massive library and before long, she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way…and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel.
Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen includes a timeline and quotes from Austen’s most popular novels. 4-6 years
A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice
By Jasmine A. Stirling, Illustrated by Vesper Stamper
Witty and mischievous Jane Austen grew up in a house overflowing with words. As a young girl, she delighted in making her family laugh with tales that poked fun at the popular novels of her time, stories that featured fragile ladies and ridiculous plots. Before long, Jane was writing her own stories-uproariously funny ones, using all the details of her life in a country village as inspiration.
In times of joy, Jane’s words burst from her pen. But after facing sorrow and loss, she wondered if she’d ever write again. Jane realized her writing would not be truly her own until she found her unique voice. She didn’t know it then, but that voice would go on to capture readers’ hearts and minds for generations to come. 5-9 years
Who Was Jane Austen?
By Sarah Fabiny, Illustrated by Jerry Hoare
Although Jane Austen’s works were first published anonymously and brought her little personal recognition, today they are rarely out of print and have inspired movies, television shows, mini-series, literary anthologies, and many other adaptations all around the world. Her writing—principally her five novels—is a critique of the British landed gentry at the end of the eighteenth century, and often a comment on the pursuit of a “good match” in matters of marriage. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Northhanger Abbey remain her most famous works. Who Was Jane Austen? reveals the life of this most private author. 8-12years
Jane Austen (Little People, Big Dreams)
by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, Illustrated by Kate Wilson
Little Jane was born into a large family with seven brothers and sisters. She grew up reading and writing stories in the English countryside. As an adult, she wrote witty commentaries about landed gentry in a way that no one had ever done before, portraying young women who bravely made their own choices. These novels made Jane one of the most loved British writers of all time. This book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical images and a detailed profile of the author’s life. 4-7 years
Brave Jane Austen: Reader, Writer, Author, Rebel
By Lisa Pliscou, Illustrated by Jen Corace
Born in the late 1700s, Jane Austen was a smart, creative girl in a house full of boys, all of whom could aspire to accomplish many things as adults while girls were raised primarily to become good wives. Jane didn’t have much opportunity to go to school but she read everything she could, including all the books in her father’s study. And before long, she began to write her own stories, filled with funny, clever, and inventive characters.
Today, Austen’s novels (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma . . .) are widely read by all ages. She is recognized as one of the most important and influential writers of all time. 7-10 years
Jane Austen For Kids: Her Life, Writing, and World with 21 Activities
By Nancy I. Sanders
Jane Austen is one of the most influential and best-loved novelists in English literature. Austen’s genius was her cast of characters—so timeless and real that readers today recognize them in their own families and neighborhoods. Her book’s universal themes—love and hate, hope and disappointment, pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility—still tug at heartstrings today in cultures spanning the globe.
Austen wrote about daily life in England as she knew it, growing up a clergyman’s daughter among the upper class of landowners, providing readers with a window into the soul of a lively, imaginative, and industrious woman in an age when most women were often obscured. Jane Austen for Kids includes a time line, resources for further study, places to visit, and 21 enriching activities. 9 and up
Lizzy Bennet’s Diary: Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
by Marcia Williams
Jane Austen’s beloved heroine Lizzy Bennet tells the story of Pride and Prejudice in her own words in an illustrated diary created by Marcia Williams. When Lizzy Bennet’s father gives her a diary, she fancies she will use it to write a novel, as her real life is exceedingly dull. Then the handsome Mr. Bingley moves to nearby Netherfield Park, and suddenly life is every bit as thrilling as a novel would be.
Who will he dance with at the Meryton ball? Who is his haughty friend? Will Lizzy ever receive a marriage proposal? Readers will have to read her diary to find out! Marcia Williams offers an introduction to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in an illustrated scrapbook-diary format, featuring such novelties as foldout notes from sisters and suitors, an elegant bill of fare, and an invitation to the ball. 8-12 years
Jane Austen: A Life Revealed
By Catherine Reef
Examines the life and works of the famous author, known for such works as “Emma,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Persuasion,” and looks at how her novels have endured for over two centuries. 12 years+
The book descriptions used are primarily from the publishers.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Book Author
Some Writer! The Story of E.B.White
by Melissa Sweet
This beautifully written biography tells the story of E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet mixes White’s personal letters, photos, and family keepsakes with her own artwork to tell the story of this American literary icon. E.B White was a journalist, New Yorker contributor, and children’s book author who loved words his whole life.
Through the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Created Narnia
By Lina Maslo
As a child, Clive Staples Lewis imagined many things . . . heroic animals, and knights in armor, and a faraway land called Boxen. He even thought of a new name for himself—at four years old, he decided he was more of a Jack. As he grew up, though, Jack found that the real world was not as just as the one in his imagination. No magic could heal the sick or stop a war, and a bully’s words could pierce as sharply as a sword. So Jack withdrew into books and eventually became a well-known author for adults.
But he never forgot the epic tales of his boyhood, and one day a young girl’s question about an old family wardrobe inspired him to write a children’s story about a world hidden beyond its fur coats . . . a world of fauns and queens and a lion named Aslan. A world of battles between good and evil, where people learned courage and love and forgiveness. A magical realm called Narnia. And the books he would write about this kingdom would change his life and that of children the world over.
Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen: The Story of Six Novels, Three Notebooks, a Writing Box and One Clever Girl
By Deborah Hopkinson, Illustrated by Qin Leng
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers. But before that, she was just an ordinary girl. In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy; if you had met her back then, you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you. Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said, and locked those observations away for safekeeping.
Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father’s massive library and before long, she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way…and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel.
The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Suzy)
by Barbara Kerley, Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham
Suzy Clemens thought the world was wrong about her papa. They saw Mark Twain as “a humorist joking at everything.” But he was so much more, and Susy was determined to set the record straight. In a journal she kept under her pillow, Susy documented her world-famous father from his habits (good and bad) to his writing routine to their family’s colorful home life. Her frank, funny, tender biography (which came to be one of Twain’s most prized possessions) gives rare insight and an unforgettable perspective on an American icon.
Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by William Anderson, Illustrated by Dan Andreasen
This picture book biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the remarkable story of the pioneer girl who would one day immortalize her adventures in the beloved Little House books. This biography captures the essence of the little girl called “Half-pint,” whose classic books and pioneer adventures have made her one of the most popular literary figures in America.
A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creator of the Snowy Day
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher
The story of The Snowy Day begins more than one hundred years ago, when Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. The family were struggling Polish immigrants, and despite Keats’s obvious talent, his father worried that Ezra’s dream of being an artist was an unrealistic one. But Ezra was determined. By high school he was winning prizes and scholarships. Later, jobs followed with the WPA and Marvel comics. But it was many years before Keats’s greatest dream was realized and he had the opportunity to write and illustrate his own book.
For more than two decades, Ezra had kept pinned to his wall a series of photographs of an adorable African American child. In Keats’s hands, the boy morphed into Peter, a boy in a red snowsuit, out enjoying the pristine snow; the book became The Snowy Day, winner of the Caldecott Medal, the first mainstream book to feature an African American child. It was also the first of many books featuring Peter and the children of his — and Keats’s — neighborhood.
Will’s Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk
by Jane Sutcliffe, Illustrated by John Shelley
When Jane Sutcliffe set out to write a book about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre, she ran into a problem: Will’s words keep popping up all over the place. What’s an author to do? After all, Will is responsible for such familiar phrases as “what’s done is done” and “too much of a good thing.” He even helped turn “household words” into household words. But — what better words are there to use to write about the greatest writer in the English language than his very own?
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
by Jen Bryant, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
When he wrote poems, William Carlos Williams felt as free as the Passaic River rushing to the falls. His notebooks filled up, one after another. His words gave him freedom and peace, but he also knew he needed to earn a living. He became a doctor yet never stopped writing poetry. This biography celebrates the amazing man who found a way to earn a living and to honor his calling to be a poet.
Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People
By Monica Brown, Illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Once there was a little boy named Neftalí who loved wild things wildly and quiet things quietly. From the moment he could talk, he surrounded himself with words. Neftalí discovered the magic between the pages of books. When he was sixteen, he began publishing his poems as Pablo Neruda.
Pablo wrote poems about the things he loved―things made by his friends in the café, things found at the marketplace, and things he saw in nature. He wrote about the people of Chile and their stories of struggle. Because above all things and above all words, Pablo Neruda loved people.
Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings
by Matthew Burgess, Illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
Some of E.E. Cummings’s wonderful poems are integrating into a story that gives readers the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry. This book emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one’s own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that.
Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig
By Deborah Hopkinson, Illustrated by Charlotte Voake
Deborah Hopkinson takes readers back to Victorian England and the home of budding young artist and animal lover Beatrix Potter. When Beatrix brings home her neighbor’s pet guinea pig so that she can practice painting it, well . . . it dies! Now what? Written in the form of a “picture letter,” this mostly true tale is a wonderful introduction to a beloved author/illustrator. An author’s note includes photographs and more information about Beatrix Potter’s life and work.
The book descriptions used are primarily from the publishers.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
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