Spotlight image: Author Marta Crisp
Author Marta Crisp
Marta M Crisp (Marty), a well-known children’s author, died from complications of the flu on Dec. 29, 2024, according to the Hampton Cove Funeral Home. Marty worked for many years as a journalist at the Lancaster Sunday News in Lancaster, Penn., along with writing children’s books.
Per her website, she left the newspaper in 2008 to return to school and earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.
Marty’s books received many accolades, including three Maxwell medals from the Dog Writers Association of America, Carolyn Field honors, the Nebraska Golden Sower Award, the Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award and a Storytellers’ World Award honor.
Additionally, she had titles published in Polish and German, and several were selected for the Junior Library Guild. Her website also states, “I’ve…. had almost every kids’ book I’ve ever written picked up by Scholastic, either for Scholastic School Book Fairs or as new paperback editions with brand new covers.”
Marty published more than a dozen children’s books, including picture books and middle grade novels and nonfiction, mostly featuring dogs and a few cats. Among them are My Dog, Cat, illustrated by True Kelly (Holiday House, 2000, Scholastic, 2003), Private Captain (Philomel, 2001), White Star, a Dog on the Titanic (Holiday House 2004, Scholastic 2004), Titanicat, illustrated by Robert Papp (Sleeping Bear Press, 2008, 2014).
Marty’s longtime friend and VCFA classmate, Linda Oatman High spoke at Marty’s service and gave us permission to share a bit of her eulogy.
I met Marty Crisp in the mid-90s. My first book was being released, and she was a reporter from the Lancaster News who was writing a feature about it. She was so professional, and she didn’t tell me during that interview that she was also a children’s book author. She told me when she called the next day to ask a question for her article.
I was floored. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” I asked.
“Because this was about you . . . not me,” she said.That was Marty. It was always about you; not her.
We became fast friends, attending writers conferences and events. We shared hotel rooms and secrets, laughter and tears, good times and sad.
When I applied (during a raging fever) to attend Vermont College and work for a master’s degree, Marty applied, too. We were both accepted, and being dorm mates was easy and fun. I remember Marty saying, “But what if it ruins our friendship?” Needless to say, it didn’t.
…
She always supported my writing, and my teaching, and my wild ideas. I’m planning a trip to Spain in April, walking 500 miles on the spiritual pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago with a friend.She sent me a card recently that said “Adventure Awaits! Congratulations on your upcoming retirement.” She crossed out retirement and wrote “loooooong hike.”
She told me during a phone call that she couldn’t walk the Camino at this stage of her life, but that her Camino was going to be finishing a book.
Author- Illustrator Jules Feiffer
“The multitalented Jules Feiffer, an author-illustrator, cartoonist, novelist, playwright, satirist, and screenwriter known for a caustic wit that earned him an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and a place in the Comic Book Hall of Fame, died on January 17, just nine days shy of his 96th birthday,” reported Publishers Weekly.
Michael Dean writing for The Comics Journal declared Feiffer had mastered every major narrative art form of the 20th century, including graphic novels and children’s literature. His distinctive pen and ink illustrations appear in Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth (Epstein & Carroll, 1961) The former roommates collaborated 50 years later for The Odious Ogre (Michael di Capua/Scholastic, 2010).
Feiffer also received acclaim for his picture books, Bark, George (Michael di Capua/HarperCollins, 1999) and its sequel, Smart George (Michael di Capua/HarperCollins, 2020).
Most recently, Feiffer wrote and illustrated the middle grade graphic novel, Amazing Grapes (Michael di Capua/HarperCollins, 2024).
In an interview with Scott Simon for NPR, Feiffer described a bit of his creative process: “I make notes and scrawl things down. And suddenly, as a result of scrawling, a notion hits me…. The book tells me where it wants to go, and I write, and I draw accordingly.”
Author Carole Gerber
“Children’s book author Carole Gerber, who published nearly two dozen picture books, early readers, and chapter books, died December 12,” reported Shelf Awareness. Gerber worked as an educator, marketing director, magazine editor and at an ad agency before becoming a children’s author.
According to her website, Gerber authored nearly two dozen picture books, early readers and chapter books, along with about 100 elementary science and reading texts.
Her most recent titles were Leaf Jumpers, illustrated by Leslie Evans (Charlesbridge, 2004, 2024); A Tree for Me, illustrated by Henena Pérez García (Familius, 2024) and How You Came to Be, illustrated by Sawsan Chalabi (Rise x Penguin Workshop, 2022).
Her picture book, Winter Trees, illustrated by Leslie Evans (Charlesbridge, 2008) was selected as an Outstanding Trade Book by the National Science Association and the Children’s Book Council.
On the Charlesbridge website, Gerber shared this insight on using verse to convey information to young readers, “The advantage of verse is that it’s concise; the flow helps children to anticipate, understand, and remember new words. There’s nothing better than lovely or funny verse to capture and hold a young reader’s attention. The disadvantage is that verse is far harder to revise than prose.”
Author John Marsden
“The Australian author John Marsden, beloved for young adult novels including the Tomorrow series and The Rabbits, has died aged 74,” reported the Guardian. He died Dec. 18, 2024 at his home in Australia.
According to Marsden’s website, he became an avid reader at a young age, and his love of reading grew alongside lengthy time spent in school detention. “…he became a very fast reader, sometimes knocking off three books in a day.”
Working as a teacher led him to seriously pursue writing. “Aware of the apathy of his own students towards reading, John resolved to try to write something that they might like.” Marsden had dabbled with writing previously, but the “edit-as-you-go approach” hadn’t gotten him far.
In the 1980s he tried a new strategy, “writing a story at full throttle, not worrying about the editing until the whole thing was finished. Astonishing himself at the change this made, John wrote a complete novel in three weeks,” according to his website.
The result was So Much to Tell You (1987) It won the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, the Koala Award and the Christopher Medal and has been widely translated. Marsden followed that success with the award-winning Tomorrow Series (Pan Macmillan, 1993 – 1999) and the Ellie Chronicles (2003 – 2006).
Marsden has been honored with every major Australian writing award for young adults, including the Lloyd O’Neil Award from the Australian Publishers Association and the Dromkeen Medal for significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children’s literature in Australia.
Cynsations Notes
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently a student in the Library Science Master’s program at the University of North Texas. She also has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She serves as board member for Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She’s active in Austin SCBWI and has taught creative writing workshops for the Austin Public Library Foundation. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.