American actor Chris Colfer
Credit: © Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock

In honor of international literacy day, World Book is celebrating actor-turned-writer Chris Colfer. Colfer is an American actor and writer. You might recognize Colfer as Kurt Hummel on the television show “Glee.” He has also written popular fantasy books for young adults.

Colfer wrote, produced, and starred in the film Struck By Lightning, released in 2012. Also in 2012, Colfer’s debut novel, The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell, was published. Colfer continued the series through 2017, releasing one novel a year. The series tells the story of twins, Connor and Alex, who find themselves drawn into a magical world based on stories they had read. In 2018, the first book of Colfer’s series A Tale of Magic… was released. The series follows the adventures of fairy Brystal Evergreen before the events of The Land of Stories.

Christopher Paul Colfer was born May 27, 1990, in Clovis, California. Colfer began performing in elementary school. He joined a local theater group, Good Company Players, when he was 10. For a few years, Colfer’s parents homeschooled him while he auditioned and performed with the group.

After graduating from Clovis East High School, Colfer traveled to Los Angeles and auditioned for a role on “Glee.” He auditioned for the role of Artie, a bookish member of the glee club who uses a wheelchair. The show’s creator, the American television producer Ryan Murphy, created the role of Kurt Hummel for Colfer instead. As Kurt, Colfer portrayed a gay student coming to terms with his identity and finding a spot in the school’s glee club. “Glee” aired from 2009 to 2015. Critics praised Colfer for his portrayal of Kurt. On “Glee,” Colfer was also able to display his singing talent. Colfer’s countertenor singing range allowed him to cover songs like “Defying Gravity” from Wicked (2003), “Rose’s Turn” from the musical Gypsy (1959), and “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston (1993).

Australian author Emily Rodda.
Credit: © Michael Small

If you find yourself surrounded by giants with golden eyes, lake creatures, sand beasts, orchard keepers, and fighting spiders, you might have fallen into Australian author Emily Rodda’s imagination. Emily Rodda is the pen name of Jennifer Rowe, an Australian writer. Rowe has also published books under the pen name Mary-Anne Dickinson.

Rodda is known for her fantasy novels for children. In her series “Deltora Quest” (2000-2006), the boy Lief and his companions embark on quests to save the magical land of Deltora from the grips of the evil Shadowlord. Rodda has authored or co-authored over 100 children’s books.

Jennifer June Rowe was born on April 2, 1948, in Sydney. Rowe attended Abbotsleigh School for Girls in Sydney. She graduated from the University of Sydney with a master’s degree in English literature in 1973. Rowe began her career in publishing as a book editor and publisher at the company Angus & Robertson. She served as editor of the magazine Australian Women’s Weekly from the 1980’s to 1992. She has been a full-time writer since 1994.

Rodda’s stories are engaging, creative, and full of surprises. Rowe submitted her first published book, Something Special (1984), under her grandmother’s name, Emily Rodda. It won the Australian Children’s Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award.

Rodda has won the award six times. She has become known for children’s fantasy series, including “Deltora Quest,” “Deltora Shadowlands” (2002), “Dragons of Deltora,” (2005), “Rowan of Rin” (1993), and “Star of Deltora” (2015-2016). An anime (Japanese animation) series based on “Deltora Quest” ran from 2007 to 2010.

She was named a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019. Rodda has also published adult mysteries and cookbooks under her real name, Jennifer Rowe.

Louise Erdrich is an American author known for her fiction rooted in her Native American heritage. Erdrich’s mother was a Chippewa, and her father was German American. Many of her characters have mixed Native American and white backgrounds and deal with issues of cultural identity.
© ZUMA Press/Alamy Images

People in the United States observe Native American Heritage Month each year in November. During this period, many Native tribes celebrate their cultures, histories, and traditions. It is also a time to raise awareness of the challenges Indigenous people have faced in the past and today, along with their contributions to the United States as its first inhabitants.

Louise Erdrich is a Native American author. In June 2021, Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her novel “The Night Watchman” published in 2020. She based the novel on her grandfather who was a council-member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. He fought the termination policy that went to Congress in 1953. The book weaves together a family story and the Chippewa efforts to preserve the tribe’s land and treaty rights in the mid 1900’s.

The Game of Silence tells the story of a young Ojibwa girl during the mid-1800′s who sees her people and their way of life threatened when white settlers come to their land.
The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich. Text and illustration copyright © 2005 by Louise Erdrich. Reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers.

Karen Louise Erdrich was born June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota where her parents taught at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Many of her books reflect on her German American and Chippewa heritage and deal with issues of cultural identity. Erdrich’s books also draw on Native American culture, mythology, and storytelling traditions.

Erdrich earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 1976 and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. She has published 28 books and won the National Book Award in 2012 for her book “The Round House.” Erdrich owns Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that focuses on Native American literature.

May 9, 2012

Maurice Sendak, a popular, influential, and occasionally controversial American illustrator and author of children’s books, died on May 8, 2012, at the age of 83. During a career that covered more than 60 years, Sendak illustrated about 80 books and wrote and illustrated nearly 20 others. His most famous work is the picture book Where the Wild Things Are (1964). Sendak won the 1964 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations for the book, which he also wrote. The story relates how a boy named Max deals with his emotions through the use of his imagination. The book influenced many children’s illustrators to move away from the innocence of children’s books of the time to create more realistic child characters.

Where the Wild Things Are was the first book in a loose trilogy that includes In the Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981). Each story portrays the main character on a voyage to a fantasy world. In The Art of Maurice Sendak (1998), Sendak explained that the three books “are all variations of the same theme: how children master various feelings–anger, boredom, fear, frustration, jealousy–and manage to come to grips with the reality of their lives.” Sendak’s works have aroused some criticism over his exploration of such sensitive topics as sexuality and fierce sibling rivalry. Upon its publication, some critics claimed that the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are were too frightening for children. Several of Sendak’s books are close observations of children at play, including The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960) and We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993).

In addition to writing and illustrating children’s books, Sendak worked in the theater during the 1980′s and 1990′s. He designed sets for operas and ballets and wrote the lyrics and designed a musical version of Where the Wild Things Are. He also collaborated with singer and songwriter Carole King on the children’s album Really Rosie (1975). In 2003, Sendak and playwright Tony Kushner produced Brundibar (2003), a picture book based on an opera that was performed by children in the early 1940′s, during World War II, in a German concentration camp.

Maurice Bernard Sendak was born on June 10, 1928, in a poor neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Art Students’ League from 1949 to 1951, when he began his career as an illustrator of children’s literature.

Additional World Book articles:

• Literature for children
• Literature for children 1964 (a Back in Time article)