Slate, Joseph 1928–

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SLATE, Joseph 1928–

(Joseph Frank Slate)

PERSONAL:

Born January 19, 1928, in Holiday's Cove, WV; son of Frank Edward (a contractor) and Angela Slate; married Patricia Griffin (a director of research), September 11, 1954. Education: University of Washington, B.A., 1951; Yale University, B.F.A., 1960; studied printmaking in Tokyo, Japan, 1955-56, and sumi-e painting in Kyoto, Japan, 1975.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Silver Spring, MD. Agent—William Reiss, John Hawkins & Associates, 71 W. 23rd St., Ste. 1600, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist, educator, and artist. Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, reporter, 1951-54; editor for Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1955-59; Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, began as instructor, 1962, professor of art, 1969-88, chair of art department, 1963-75, 1981-82; presently professor emeritus. Consultant in psychology of art to Dr. Irvin Child, Yale University, 1960-66; National Endowment for the Arts, consultant, 1977-78, and originator of Fiction in Newspaper program, 1983—. Exhibitions: Paintings and graphics have been exhibited in numerous group and one-man shows, 1960-88.

MEMBER:

University of Washington Fir Tree Club (honorary member), Oval Club (honorary member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

University of Washington Top-Flight Award for journalism, 1951; Yale University alumni fellowship, 1960; painting award from Ohio Expositions, 1962; grants from Carnegie Foundation and Danforth Foundation, both 1968; Ford-Kenyon Faculty Awards grant, 1970-71; grant from Great Lakes Colleges Association, 1975; named Kenyon Outstanding Educator of America, 1973; honorary D.F.A., Kenyon College, 1988; Ohioana Library Association award, 1988, for distinguished service in the field of children's literature; Delaware Blue Hen Award, 1997, for Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten; Notable Children's Book selection, American Library Association, 2000, for The Secret Stars; Outstanding Maryland Author Award, Association for Childhood Education International, 2001.

WRITINGS:

picture books

The Star Rocker, illustrations by Dirk Zimmer, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1982.

How Little Porcupine Played Christmas, illustrations by Felicia Bond, Crowell (New York, NY), 1983, published as Little Porcupine's Christmas, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Mean Clean Giant Canoe Machine, illustrations by Lynn Munsinger, Crowell (New York, NY), 1983.

Lucky Lula Cat, illustrations by Bruce Degen, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1984.

Lonely Lula Cat, pictures by Bruce Degen, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1985.

Who Is Coming to Our House?, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Putnam (New York, NY), 1988.

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 1998.

The Secret Stars, illustrated by Felipe Davalos, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 1998.

Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 2000.

Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

Story Time for Little Porcupine, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2001.

Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 2002.

The Great Big Wagon That Rang: How the Liberty Bell Was Saved, illustrated by Craig Spearing, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2002.

Miss Bindergarten Has a Wild Day in Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten, illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.

What Star Is This?, illustrated by Alison Jay, Putnam (New York, NY), 2005.

other

(With Martin Garhart) Poetry and Prints, Pothanger Press, 1974.

Crossing the Trestle (young-adult novel), Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 1999.

Contributor of short stories, articles, and interviews to periodicals, including Contempora, New Yorker, Saturday Review, Kenyon Review, and Art Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joseph Slate is the author of award-winning picture books for children. He is perhaps best known for his works featuring Miss Bindergarten, a canine kindergarten teacher whose students include an alligator and a zebra. A painter and educator in addition to author, Slate held a fascination for illustrated books long before he decided to learn more about them by writing one himself. As he once remarked, "I've always liked the short form in literature—poetry and short stories—so it was natural I'd gravitate to the picture book. As an artist, I am very visual in my writing."

Slate published his first picture book, The Star Rocker, in 1982. The story is a reworking of the tale of Cassiopeia in Greek mythology. In the Greek version, Cassiopeia was a queen who was raised to a chair of stars in the sky, where she became a constellation. Slate's Cassie is instead an elderly African-American woman who smokes a corncob pipe while sitting in a rocking chair on a raft, calming the animals of the woods who are frightened by the noises of the night.

Slate examines a dramatic piece of American history in The Great Big Wagon That Rang: How the Liberty Bell Was Saved. Based on both historical accounts and legend, his story details how a farmer transported the famous bell in his horse-drawn wagon from Philadelphia to the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, covering the bell with hay and thus hiding it from the British soldiers who intended to melt it down and use its metal for ammunition. "Rhythmic and rhyming without the rumpety-thump that characterizes too much of children's poetry, [Slate's] … natural-sounding verse conveys a good, pithy story," observed Carolyn Phelan in Booklist.

What Star Is This? uses rhyming text to retell the Nativity story. Slate imagines the celestial body seen by the wise men as a comet streaking across the sky, "and its particular mission is spreading good will as it lights the way for those seeking 'the One,'" according to a critic in Kirkus Reviews. In the words of Booklist critic Diane Foote, What Star Is This? "offers a fresh take on the traditional Christian account" of the Christmas story.

In 1996, Slate published Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, the first work in his highly regarded "Miss Bindergarten" series. The inspiration for the book came from members of Slate's own family, as he noted on his home page. "My niece was getting ready to teach one year, and my nephew was getting ready to go to kindergarten," Slate explained. "I wondered if they were preparing in the same way. I wondered if they were nervous about that first day." Slate has since published several other works in the series, including Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten and Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten. In each of the "Miss Bindergarten" books readers are introduced to the border-collie instructor and her alphabetically arranged students, including Christopher the cat and Ian the iguana. Critics have lauded Slate's efforts. Reviewing Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten in School Library Journal, for example, Martha Topol praised the "cooperative good cheer of this tightly knit class."

In addition to his works for children, Slate has a young-adult novel to his credit: Crossing the Trestle. Set in 1944 in West Virginia, the work concerns young siblings Petey and Loni as they struggle in the aftermath of a car accident that has left their father dead and Loni disfigured. With the help of a troubled World War I veteran, the children learn to deal with their grief, and Petey conquers his fear of crossing the trestle bridge on the path to his new school. "Slate has created an entire cast of thoroughly likable, believable characters," noted Booklist reviewer Chris Sherman, who also complimented the author's "vivid descriptions of wartime conditions" in the book's rural locale.

Though Slate has enjoyed his greatest success with picture books, he views novel-writing as a continued goal. As he remarked on his home page, "It's hard to know what one will be good at unless one tries. I enjoy writing, although I have never been at ease with grammar and vocabulary. That puzzles me, but that is true of many writers. We struggle to carve out our words. Maybe that struggle contributes to the originality in our work."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, September 15, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of The Secret Stars, p. 240; January 1, 2000, Chris Sherman, review of Crossing the Trestle, p. 927; October 15, 2000, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of Story Time for Little Porcupine, p. 446; October 1, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten, p. 327; November 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Great Big Wagon That Rang: How the Liberty Bell Was Saved, p. 509; December 1, 2005, review of What Star Is This?, p. 57; February 15, 2006, Julie Cummins, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten, p. 105.

Horn Book, May-June, 2006, Martha V. Parravano, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten, p. 304.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2001, review of Little Porcupine's Christmas, p. 1368; August 15, 2002, review of The Great Big Wagon That Rang, p. 1237; November 1, 2005, review of What Star Is This?, p. 1196.

Publishers Weekly, November 25, 2002, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, p. 71; September 26, 2005, review of What Star Is This?, p. 1196.

School Library Journal, November, 2000, Sheilah Kosco, review of Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten, p. 134; November, 2002, Robin L. Gibson, review of The Great Big Wagon That Rang, p. 138; December, 2002, Carolyn Janssen, review of Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten, p. 108; July, 2004, Lisa G. Kropp, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, p. 44; February, 2005, Christine E. Carr, review of Miss Bindergarten Has a Wild Day in Kindergarten, p. 109; March, 2006, Martha Topol, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten, p. 202.

Teaching Children Mathematics, December, 1999, Joanne L. Parent, review of Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, p. 267.