November Author Birthday Honorees

November 15, 2012

Imagine that you are going to throw a birthday party for famous authors whose birthdays are in November. Your guest of honor list may look something like this (pretend they are all alive):

Robert Louis Stevenson  (11/13)  Treasure Island
Nancy Tafuri  (11/14)  Have You Seen My Duckling
Jean Fritz  (11/16)  Leonardo’s Horse
Marc Brown  (11/25)  The Arthur series
C. S. Lewis  (11/29)  The Chronicles of Narnia
Madeleine L’Engle  (11/29)  A Wrinkle in Time
Louisa May Alcott  (11/29)   Little Women
Mark Twain  (11/30)  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

How exciting! You begin planning your entertainment, guest list, and menu. Conversation will probably not be an issue because, really, if you can’t find something to talk about with these folks, you’re in deep trouble. But you do your research anyway so you can keep the conversation going in case there is a lull.
You discover that out of the eight honorees, four were only children, three were born abroad, and two were trained in graphic design. One served during the Civil War, one renamed himself after his dog "Jacksie," and one was born and died during subsequent visits of Haley’s Comet.

That is all very interesting, but you’d like to find a common thread for camaraderie sake, and lo and behold, all of them wrote for young readers! Can you match the above trivia with the correct author? The answers are listed below.

Happy birthday and thank you for your literary contributions and for giving us hours of fun reading!

Mary T.
Blue Springs North Branch

Answers:
Only children: Robert Louis Stevenson, Nancy Tafuri, Jean Fritz, Madeleine L’Engle
Born abroad: Robert Louis Stevenson, Jean Fritz, C. S. Lewis
Graphic artists: Nancy Tafuri, Marc Brown
Served during Civil War: Louisa May Alcott
Renamed himself “Jacksie”: C. S. Lewis
Birth and death during Haley’s Comet visits: Mark Twain