Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974) was a popular and prolific writer of children's and young adult fiction.

Born in 1893, in Springfield, Ohio, Lois was a voracious reader from a young age, a passion that never left her. She went to college at Ohio State University, where she trained to be a teacher. During that period, she took as many art courses as she could make time for and was the art editor for the university yearbook. After graduation, Lois became an art student in New York, in preparation for what she hoped would be a career in fine art. There she met Arthur Covey, a painter and muralist, whom she married in 1921; he was a widower with two young children already, and the couple also had a son, Stephen, in 1929.

In Journey Into Childhood, Lenski writes that she was struck by the fact that there were "plenty of books that tell how children live in Alaska, Holland, China, and Mexico, but no books at all telling about the many ways children live here in the United States." In the early 1940s, because she suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, her doctor told her that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. As a result, she and her husband traveled south each fall. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, "On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. What interested me most was the way children were living." So, beginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her "regional series."

This series includes her most famous work, Strawberry Girl, about a girl in Florida; Blue Ridge Billy, about a North Carolina youth living in rural Appalachia; Cotton in My Sack, Prairie School, etc. Her "historical" series included Phebe Fairchild (1937), Ocean-Born Mary (1939), and Indian Captive (1942). She illustrated the first four Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace.  Another beloved series was the picture book collection about Mr. Small.

She received Newbery Honors for Phebe Fairchild and for Indian Captive, won the annual Newbery Medal for Strawberry Girl in 1946, and took the Children's Book Award for Judy's Journey in 1947.

In 1967 Lenski established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, which provides grants for book purchases to libraries and organizations serving children who are socially and economically at risk. By the time of her death in 1974, Lois wrote and illustrated well over one hundred books for children of various ages.

We need to know our country better. We need to know not only our own region, where our roots are firmly put down, but other regions where people different from ourselves—people of different races, faiths, cultures and backgrounds…..When we know them, understand how they live and why, we will think of them as ‘people’—human beings like ourselves.”
—Lois Lenski, Newbery Award acceptance speech, June 18, 1946

 

Selected works[edit]

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30 Items found
Adventures of Robin Hood / Pinocchio (adapted)
by Eleanor Graham Vance, illustrated by Jay Hyde Barnum
from Random House
for 1st-4th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Bayou Suzette
Wartime Edition from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy-Tacy #3
by Maud Hart Lovelace
First Harper Trophy Edition from HarperCollins
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy-Tacy #3
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from HarperTrophy
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy-Tacy #1
by Maud Hart Lovelace
2nd edition from HarperCollins
Family/Friendship Story for 3rd-6th grade
HarperTrophy
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Betsy-Tacy #2
by Maud Hart Lovelace
2nd edition from HarperCollins
Family/Friendship Story for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Betsy-Tacy Treasury
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from HarperCollins
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Betsy-Tacy Trilogy
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from HarperCollins
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Blue Ridge Billy
from Dell Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Blueberry Corners
by Lois Lenski
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Chimney Corner Stories
by Veronica S. Hutchinson, illustrated by Lois Lenski
from Minton, Balch & CO.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Coal Camp Girl
Living History Library
by Lois Lenski
from Purple House Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.99 $7.00 (1 in stock)
Corn-Farm Boy
by Lois Lenski
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Cowboy Small
by Lois Lenski
from Random House
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Fireside Stories
by Veronica S. Hutchinson
from Minton, Balch & CO.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Fireside Stories
by Veronica S. Hutchinson, illustrated by Lois Lenski
from Minton, Balch & CO.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Flood Friday
by Lois Lenski
from Open Road Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$14.99
Houseboat Girl
by Lois Lenski
Reprint from Open Road Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Indian Captive
by Lois Lenski
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 4th-9th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Judy's Journey
by Lois Lenski
from Open Road Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$15.99
Little Family
by Lois Lenski
First Edition, First Printing from Random House
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.00 (1 in stock)
Little Fire Engine
by Lois Lenski
from Random House Books for Young Readers
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Little Train OSI
by Lois Lenski
from Random House Books for Young Readers
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Ocean-Born Mary
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
for 3rd-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.99
Phebe Fairchild
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
for 3rd-8th grade
1937 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$17.99
Prairie School
by Lois Lenski
Reprint from Open Road Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Puritan Adventure
by Lois Lenski
from Lippincott
for 3rd-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Read-To-Me Storybook
by Lois Lenski, Illustrator
from HarperCollins
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski
from HarperCollins
Realistic fiction for 4th-6th grade
1946 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Texas Tomboy
by Lois Lenski
from Open Road Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$15.99