| Leonard S. Marcus |
| Children's Book Historian, Author, Critic |
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eonard Marcus is one of the children's book world's most respected and versatile writers, historians, and critics.
His highly acclaimed books about children's literature and the authors and artists who create them include: Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; A Caldecott Celebration; Author Talk; Side by Side; Ways of Telling; Storied City; and The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy. Recent children's books include Oscar: The Big Adventure of a Little Sock Monkey (co-authored and illustrated by Amy Schwartz) and the forthcoming Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark. Leonard is one of the most trusted critics in the field. His incisive book reviews have been featured in Parenting magazine in every issue since the monthly's founding in 1987. In addition, Leonard has been a Parenting contributing editor since 1988 and has directed the magazine's annual Best Books of the Year Awards since their inception in that year. He has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, The Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, among other publications, and is a three-time judge of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year prize. He is a standing member of The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award committee and was a judge of the 1996 National Book Awards. Leonard has been a featured guest of ABC's Good Morning America, BBC Radio 4, C-SPAN 2 Book TV, WOR's Rambling with Gambling, Fox Network's Good Morning Sunday, National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation, the Loose Leaf Book Company, WNYC's Studio 360, Canadian Broadcasting Company's As It Happens, and WHYY Philadelphia's Radio Times. In 2006, Leonard served as literary director of The Night Kitchen Radio Theater, founded by Arthur Yorinks, with monthly performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., and regular broadcasts on XM Satellite Radio. He has curated exhibitions on children's books and their illustration at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, where is also a founding trustee; New York Public Library; New School for Social Research; Vassar College Library; the Boston Athenaeum; Katonah Museum of Art; and the Meridian International Center (Washington, DC). Leonard has been a consultant to the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Book Foundation, All for Kids Foundation, Norman Rockwell Museum, National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, and Book Globe Company Ltd (Japan). He is a member of the national board of the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature (www.nccil.org) and the Mazza Museum national advisory board. Leonard speaks to parents and professional groups throughout the U. S. and around the world. Recent appearances have included talks and lectures at the American Library Association convention, Yale University, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' National Conference, the Bologna International Children's Book Fair, the New York Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Mona Bismarck Foundation (Paris), and the national libraries of France and Japan. He enjoys speaking to schoolchildren, and offers a variety of presentations for preschoolers through teens. Leonard was born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, where he attended the public schools. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers' Workshop. In 2007, Leonard was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education. He and his wife, the picture-book artist Amy Schwartz, live with their son Jacob in Brooklyn, New York. |
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