Beatrice Schenk de Regniers facts for kids
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (born August 16, 1914 – died March 1, 2000) was an American writer. She was famous for writing many wonderful children's picture books.
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers was born in Lafayette, Indiana. She studied how to help people and communities at the University of Chicago. She earned her master's degree in 1941. In the 1940s, she worked in the United States. She also helped people in a camp for refugees from Yugoslavia. This camp was located on the Sinai Peninsula.
In the 1950s, she became a writer. She wrote many different things. These included true stories, funny stories, and short stories. She also wrote columns for newspapers. Most importantly, she started writing children's books. Her very first book was The Giant Story. It was a picture book with drawings by Maurice Sendak. It came out in 1953.
Starting in 1961, she worked at Scholastic, Inc.. She was the first editor of their "Lucky Book Club." She worked four days a week. Mondays were kept free for her own writing. She retired from Scholastic after twenty years.
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers wrote more than fifty books. Ten of these books were published under a different name. Her secret name was Tamara Kitt. Some books she wrote as Tamara Kitt include The Adventures of Silly Billy (1961) and The Boy Who Fooled the Giant (1963).
One of her most famous books is May I Bring a Friend?. The pictures for this book were drawn by Beni Montresor. In 1965, Beni Montresor won the important Caldecott Medal for his amazing illustrations in this book.
Selected Books
- The Giant Story (1953), illustrated by Maurice Sendak
- A Little House of Your Own (1954) — a book about herself
- What Can You Do with a Shoe? (1955), illustrated by Maurice Sendak
- The Snow Party (1959)
- The Little Girl and her Mother (1963)
- May I Bring a Friend? (1964), illustrated by Beni Montresor
- How Joe the Bear and Sam the Mouse Got Together (1965), illustrated by Brinton Turkle
- Red Riding Hood: Retold in Verse for Boys and Girls to Read Themselves (1972), illustrated by Edward Gorey
- Laura's Story, illustrated by Jack Kent
- Penny (1987), illustrated by Betsy Lewin
- Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems (1988), with illustrations by many artists including Maurice Sendak, Arnold Lobel, and Trina Schart Hyman
