Side A: Acclaimed author and illustrator of juvenile literature Lois Lenski was born in Springfield in 1893, grew up in Anna, and graduated from Sidney High School. In 1915, Lenski graduated from The Ohio State University and moved to New York City to work and study art. After illustrating several children’s books in the early 1920s, she began writing and illustrating her own stories. Lenski specialized in historical fiction and regional themes–eventually publishing nearly one hundred carefully-researched books.
Side B: Two of Lenski’s earliest books, Skipping Village (1927), and A Little Girl of 1900 (1928), drew upon childhood in Anna. Strawberry Girl (1945) won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association in 1946. Two of her other works, Phebe Fairchild: Her Book (1936) and Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (1941) were named Newbery Honor Books. Bayou Suzette won the 1944 Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Award. Lois Lenski died at her home in Florida in 1974.
Sponsors: Ohio Bicentennial Commission, Shelby County Historical Society, Friends of Children’s Literature, and The Ohio Historical Society
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