| In Memoriam: Paula Danziger |
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As you read these words offered in tribute to Paula, we encourage you to take a moment and remember your first encounter with her work.
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“Paula Danziger burst into my life when I was working as a bookseller at Eeyore’s Books for Children. She was one of our star customers, and I mean that literally. The whole store lit up when she came in and we’d all whisper, ‘That’s Paula Danziger!’ Of course, there was no need to whisper around Paula, because she wasn’t really the shy, retiring type. She helped me come up with a title for my first book, and even though I ended up not using her title (although she insisted for the rest of her life that her title was better), we became great friends and she never stopped being as supportive of me as she was that first day in Eeyore’s.
I always felt bigger and brighter in her presence, and was thrilled to be supportive of her when she began illustrating and making her own collages. I don’t think anyone was surprised when she started making collages, because she was a collage herself. It was like she was made up of bright shiny things and sparkles and stickers and jewels. No one who met her, or her read her books, will ever forget her. She was a true friend, a richly complicated person, and a six-year-old all at once. She loved bad puns so much that it was as if she had invented the very idea of the bad pun herself. I’ll end here, with a bad pun, just the way Paula would have liked it. This pun is dedicated to her other great love, shoes.
Paula, I love you heart and sole.” —Brian Selznick
Brian is the author of The Boy of a Thousand Faces, The Houdini Box, and illustrator of The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride and When Marion Sang among others.
“I first met Paula Danziger in the late 80s at the same bookseller conference where an unknown author named John Grisham was signing copies of his very first book, A Time to Kill. While Mr. Grisham’s audience had yet to discover him, Ms. Danziger’s was totally besotted with her, her works, and her overwhelming generosity towards her fellow children’s book people.
“Several years later, I was lucky enough to hear Paula speak at the Educational Paperback Association conference where she received that year’s Ludington Award. She later said that this award was her favorite because was for getting kids excited about reading. To read the entire citation, click here.
“She became one of the first authors interviewed for this publication where she talked about Amber Brown and her friend Justin: ‘I love their friendship,’ she confessed. She also spoke at length about her mission as an author: ‘I feel a responsibility to all my characters—a good writer has to tell the best story, not to write with messages.’” –Ellen Myrick, Editor, Children’s & Teen Librarian
For a listing of books by Paula Danziger—none of which have heavyhanded messages—please click here.
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