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Welcome to the home page of author Angelica Shirley Carpenter 
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Welcome to the home page of author Angelica Shirley Carpenter
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About the Author ~
About her Books ~
Programs Available ~
Reviews
Contact the Author 
Angelica Shirley Carpenter is the author or co-author of four illustrated biographies for young people:
Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden (1990),
L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz (1992),
Robert Louis Stevenson: Finding Treasure Island (1997),
and Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass (2003).
All four books are published by Lerner Publications of Minneapolis.
She is also the editor of In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett published by Scarecrow in 2006. This book, written for adults, is based on the Burnett conference Angelica organized at California State University, Fresno, in 2003.
Angelica has a bachelor's degree in French and master's degrees in education and library science, all from the University of Illinois. For 16 years she was director of the public library in Palm Springs, Florida. In 1991, as President of the Palm Beach County Library Association, she founded BookFest of the Palm Beaches, an annual literary festival.
In 1999 Angelica began a new job as founding Curator of the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature at California State University, Fresno. The Arne Nixon Center web site is www.ArneNixonCenter.org.
Angelica is president of the International Wizard of Oz Club and a contributing editor to The Baum Bugle. Information on Oz activities is available at www.ozclub.org. Angelica is also a board member of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and she is a member of the British and the Canadian Lewis Carroll Societies, the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
An accomplished photographer, Angelica produces slide-illustrated travelogues to accompany her books and is a sought-after speaker for groups of all ages.
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In 2003 at California State University, Fresno, Angelica convened the first conference ever held about Frances Hodgson Burnett. Scholars, fans, and collectors came from several countries to participate. This book, based on the conference, includes essays about her life and work from Alison Lurie, Ann Thwaite, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Jerry Griswold, and others. It includes rare photos and illustrations and an interview with Burnett's great-granddaughter, Penny Deupree, who inherited the family archive. |
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Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics tutor at Oxford University in England. He wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for his child friend Alice Liddell, daughter of the college dean. As a young man, he took up photography for a hobby and today he is judged the best photographer of children from the Victorian era. In the 21st century, some of his pictures have sparked controversy. |
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Robert Louis Stevenson grew from a spoiled only child into a polished world traveler and famous author. Born in Scotland, he broke his father's heart before he traveled to Europe, America, and the South Seas. In 1888 he sailed across the Pacific Ocean in a luxurious 95-foot yacht to meet cannibals, missionaries, chiefs, and princesses in exotic lands. His 60 books include travelogues and the novels Kidnapped, Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, and Treasure Island. Sometimes this author's real life was as exciting as the stories he wrote. |
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L. Frank Baum enjoyed fairy tales as a child, but sometimes they frightened him. Someday, he thought, he would write a new kind of story, with nothing to scare young readers. After working as an actor, shop owner, newspaper editor, china salesman, and marketing expert, he began writing seriously in his forties. His most famous book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published in 1900 and he wrote 13 more Oz books after that. |
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In 1868 a poor British teenager, recently arrived in Tennessee, sold two stories to an American magazine. Sixty books later, Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of the richest, most popular authors in the world, but money could not guarantee happiness. Her book Little Lord Fauntleroy started a fashion craze that little boys hated. The Secret Garden was based on her own experience bringing a neglected garden back to life. Find out why this famous writer closely resembles her plucky heroine in A Little Princess. |
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Lecture
Little Bits of the Puzzle. Robert Louis Stevenson said, "I like biography better than fiction myself; fiction is too free. In biography you have your little handful of facts, little bits of a puzzle, and you sit and think and fit 'em together this way and that." Angelica describes her writing techniques with examples from her four biographies for young people.
Power Point Presentations
The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Photographs of the Center's programs and exhibitions are combined with highlights from its collections, including foreign language books, the Lewis Carroll Collection, and the Helen Monnette Amestoy Collection of Books on Cats, the largest collection of cat books in any library in the world.
Aunt Jane's Nieces. L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books, wrote the best-selling Aunt Jane's Nieces series of girls' adventure novels under the name Edith Van Dyne. This presentation compares the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, written by a man, to the popular Patty books by Carolyn Wells (a woman) and finds some gender-based differences in the two series.
Connecticut Yankees in King Arthur's Courts. Discover the American influence in six European collections of children's literature and see highlights from collections in London, Oxford, Newcastle, The Hague, and Munich. This program is suitable for library audiences.
Frances Hodgson Burnett follows the famous author who moved from England to America as a teenager and who crossed the ocean 32 more times. The author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy also wrote dozens of best-selling novels for adults, dealing with serious issues like single mothers and abusive marriages. Her personal life was considered shocking for Victorian times. Accompanies the books Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden and In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Heather to Hibiscus follows Robert Louis Stevenson from Scotland to the South Seas. The author of Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses was born in 1850 to a wealthy Edinburgh family. He met his American wife-to-be in France, and later traveled to America and on three voyages through the South Seas. This slide-illustrated tour shows historical photos and current views of Edinburgh, France, California, and Samoa. Accompanies the book Robert Louis Stevenson: Finding Treasure Island.
How I Became a Writer. This is a slide-illustrated lecture with family photographs of Angelica Carpenter and her mother and co-author Jean Shirley, and with pictures of Oz books, old and new. Angelica tells how she became an author and gives a short history of Oz publishing and Oz's presence in (or absence from) public libraries from the 1920s to the present. This brief presentation is suitable for audiences of widely varying ages, from kindergarten to adults.
The International Wizard of Oz Club. Justin Schiller founded The International Wizard of Oz Club in 1957 when he was just twelve years old. Now he is a world famous dealer in antiquarian children's books and the Club is one of the oldest and largest literary societies in the world. This presentation gives a basic history of Oz and the Club and describes Club meetings, publications, costume contests, and world contacts.
Lewis Carroll at Oxford. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson "went up" to Christ Church [College] at Oxford University as an undergraduate and remained there all his life, teaching mathematics. He wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass for his child friend, Alice Liddell, daughter of the college dean, basing the books on her real life experiences. Dodgson published children's books using the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll to protect his academic reputation. He is considered the most important photographer of children from the Victorian era, but his friendships with little girls and his photos of some of them undressed make him a controversial subject 100 years after his death. Slides include historical photos, scenes from the 1998 Lewis Carroll Centenary Conference at Oxford, the Isle of Wight, and Guildford, where Dodgson died. Accompanies the book Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass.
L. Frank Baum and Oz. Many readers don't realize that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first of 14 Oz books by Baum. This program summarizes the first three books and traces Baum's many jobs and travels from New York, to Dakota Territory, to Hollywood in the days of silent movies. Find out why Oz books have been banned from schools and libraries since the start of the series. Slides feature historical photos, Oz illustrations, and photos of the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, where L. Frank Baum wrote several Oz books. Accompanies the book L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz.
Literary Gardens features the garden at Oxford where Lewis Carroll met Alice Liddell, Frances Hodgson Burnett's garden in Kent (she based The Secret Garden on her experiences there), and the garden at Sissinghurst Castle, designed by authors Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson. The Sissinghurst garden was featured in the PBS Masterpiece Theatre series "Portrait of a Marriage," based on the book by the same name. Accompanies the books Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden and In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Magical Sabbatical. Take a virtual European tour of children's literature collections and sites. See highlights of collections at Roehampton University in Surrey, England; the Bodleian Library in Oxford; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Seven Stories, The Centre for the Children's Book, at Newcastle upon Tyne; the National Library of the Netherlands, and the International Youth Library, Munich. Includes photos of programs sponsored by the Lewis Carroll Society, a visit to The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, and interviews with Richard Peck and Jacqueline Wilson, the Children's Laureate of Britain.
To arrange for a presentation, or for further information,
please contact the author at:
angelica@csufresno.edu
559-278-8116
In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett
Children's Literature Association Quarterly: " the wide range of contributions to the volume is unusual.... Time spent in the literary garden that Carpenter offers in this collection is time well spent, indeed."
The Lion and the Unicorn: "Together, the authors give a sense of what can and should be explored about Burnett's work; they stake a claim for continued study of this important literary figure whose texts inspire many adaptations, theatrical performances, historical studies, and critical scholarship.... In the Garden ... serves as an introduction not only to Burnett's life and children's texts but also to her novels for adults and their many adaptations.... Like an old-fashioned country garden with an eclectic mixture of flowers, In the Garden invites wandering through new terrain."
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass
The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books: " reflective of contemporary research and changing views, and it rises above many older clichés: this isn't the hackneyed picture of Lewis Carroll, Wonded Soul, but rather a more complicated view of a man whose life contained pleasures and successes as well as disappointments."
The Lorgnette-Heart of Texas Reviews: " It is an honest portrait of a gentle, imaginative, highly gifted man."
VOYA: "the photography interspersed throughout the text allows the reader to see into Carroll's life and photgraphic art. Carpenter addresses the issue of Carroll's proclivity for young girls, yet she manages to keep it from becoming the focus of his relationship with Alice. Because Carroll kept a copy of all the letters he wrote, there is a great deal of primary information that flows nicely with the text of the biography."
Robert Lewis Stevenson: Finding Treasure Island
School Library Journal: "...exceptionally well-documented ... A readable, fact-filled
volume."
Booklist: "Concrete details of his childhood and youth, as well as
quotations from letters and other period writings give the story
immediacy. An involving and well-documented account of the
writer's life."
L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz
Kirkus Reviews: "An impressively researched account of Baum's variegated career as writer, actor, impressario, filmmaker, and devoted family man, whose health and finances were both often precarious. Many amusing or telling anecdotes give a strong sense of the man's personality. Exceptionally well illustrated ... highly recommended."
Booklist: " ... an entertaining and informative look at the vicissitudinous life of Baum ... setting him squarely within his time. Kids who have loved the Oz series will enjoy reading about its creator."
Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden
School Library Journal, starred review: " A first-rate biography ... The writing is intelligent and honest in detailing all facets of this amazing life. Reading like a good novel, this is a celebration of who Frances Hodgson Burnett was and what made her so."
Booklist: " ... highly readable ... Copiously illustrated with photographs, portraits, and drawings ... will appeal to the many readers whose hearts Burnett has touched through her books."
About the Author ~
About her Books ~
Programs Available ~
Reviews
Contact the Author
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America Writes for Kids |
School Author Visits |
Angelica's books are available from Lerner Publications Company at www.lernerbooks.com.
© All text is copyright Angelica Shirley Carpenter.
This page was adapted by Richard Carpenter from a design by
Susan Taylor Brown - The Writer's Attic.
http://www.flash.net/~susan23/
