Verna Aardema

24 featured booksVerna Aardema

Verna Norberg Aardema Vugteveen (June 6, 1911 – May 11, 2000), best known by the name Verna Aardema, was an American writer of children's books. Verna Norberg was born in New Era, Michigan. She graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. of Journalism in 1934. She worked as a grade school teacher from 1934 to 1973 and became a correspondent for the Muskegon Chronicle in 1951, a job that lasted until 1972, the year before she retired from teaching. In her senior year at Michigan State, Norberg won three writing contests; although not her first, they were the most influential in her decision to pursue the childhood dream. She first considered writing for children when her daughter refused to eat until she'd heard one of her mother's stories. These bribes were often set in the places that she had been reading about recently, and as she became more and more interested in Africa, they began to be set there more frequently. In 1960, she published her first set of stories, Tales from the Story Hat which were very successful, and so she continued to adapt traditional tales and folklore from distant cultures, (usually from Africa and Mexico) to expose young children to the vast variety of human expression. Her book, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (1975), illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon, received the Caldecott Medal in 1976 and the Brooklyn Art Books for Children Award in 1977. Who's in Rabbit's House? 1977 was the 1977 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner in 1978. Aardema received the Children's Reading Round Table Award in 1981, and several of her works have been selected as Notable Books by the American Library Association. Her Oh Kojo! How Could You! won the 1984 Parents' Choice Award for Literature.

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OL387077A

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Display name
Verna Aardema
Personal name
Verna Aardema
Source identifier
OL387077A

Featured books

Representative editions for works actually authored by this person.

Works in catalog

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Bringing the rain to Kapiti Plain
Representative edition published 2019
Open Work
Who's in Rabbit's house?
Representative edition published 2009
Open Work
Who's in Rabbit's House and other Stories from the African Tradition
Representative edition published 2008
Open Work
Strega Nona and Other Stories from Near and Far
Representative edition published 2007
Open Work
Koi and the kola nuts
Representative edition published 2003
Open Work
Anansi Does the Impossible
Representative edition published 2001
Open Work
Oh, Kojo! How Could You!
Representative edition published 1999
Open Work
Rabbit makes a monkey of Lion
Representative edition published 1999
Open Work
Traveling to Tondo
Representative edition published 1999
Open Work
Borreguita and the coyote
Representative edition published 1998
Open Work
This for that
Representative edition published 1997
Open Work
The lonely lioness and the Ostrich chicks
Representative edition published 1996
Open Work
How the ostrich got its long neck
Representative edition published 1995
Open Work
Jackal's flying lesson : a khoikhoi tale
Representative edition published 1995
Open Work
Misoso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa
Representative edition published 1994
Open Work
Misoso
Representative edition published 1994
Open Work
Rabbit Makes a Monkey of Lion
Representative edition published 1993
Open Work
Sebgugugu the glutton
Representative edition published 1993
Open Work
Oh, Kojo! How could you!
Representative edition published 1993
Open Work
Anansi finds a fool
Representative edition published 1992
Open Work
A bookworm who hatched
Representative edition published 1992
Open Work
Bimwili & the Zimwi
Representative edition published 1992
Open Work
Anansi Finds a Fool
Representative edition published 1992
Open Work
Pedro & the padre
Representative edition published 1991
Open Work