A very silly chapter book about an adventurous mouse who rescues his own true love.
Girl Who Cried Flowers, The
The publication of this book, nine years after my first book had appeared, established my reputation in the children’s literature field. These five original fairy tales–“The Girl Who Cried Flowers,” “Dawn Strider,” “The Weaver of Tomorrow,” “The Lad Who Stared Everyone Down,” and “Silent
Wizard Islands, The
A study of islands that have mysteries or ghost stories attached to them, and a section on disappearing or appearing islands, like Surtsey which is a volcanic island. Quackenbush used old maps and charts as well as drawings to illustrate the book. This was long a favorite of my son, Adam.
Zoo 2000
This anthology of twelve stories of science fictional and fantasy beasts, includes two original stories (by Dale Ferguson Cope and Richard Curtis) and ten reprints by such luminaries as Theodore Sturgeon, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, James Thurber, Andre Norton, and Philip Jose Farmer. I contributed only the introduction.
Writing Books for Children
See “Guide to Writing for Children.”
Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers
A biography–warts and all–of the charismatic founder of the Society of Friends aka the Quakers. George Fox was a man who believed that God was within every human being, and such was his conviction, he managed to offend a good portion of the English clergy and the powers that be. He was
Girl Who Loved the Wind, The
An original fairy tale, this story is about a girl whose overprotective father tries to keep her from all things wicked, unhappy, trying, or real. At last the wind blows in over the garden wall and woos her, taking her into the ever-changing world. A fifth grader at the Smith College Campus School pointed
Fireside Song Book of Birds and Beasts, The
This mammoth collection was my first song book. Babbie Green is a good friend and professional musician. (Her father, Johnny Green was a Hollywood composer and arranger.) We had a ball working on this. I picked all the songs, found the written music or sung it into a tape recorder and
Bird of Time, The
This is a straight-forward original fairy tale in which a miller’s son, who has the gift of understanding the speech of animals, finds a bird that can speed time up or slow time down or stop time altogether. With the bird’s help, he rescues a princess from a wicked giant. Interestingly, I began writing the
Seventh Mandarin, The
An original fairy tale set in Thailand and based on a line in my kite research which said that the king had kite mandarins who flew his kite at night to keep his soul above the terrors of the night. The story, written during my Quaker phase, is about speaking truth to power no matter what the cost.