Barbara Cohen (1932–1992) was an American author of
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
.
Personal life
Cohen graduated from
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
(BA, 1954) and from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
(MA, 1957). She taught high school English in several cities in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and wrote a long-running
newspaper column
A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, where a writer expresses their own opinion in few columns allotted to them by the newspaper organisation. Columns are written by columnists.
What different ...
entitled "Books and Things." She and her husband Gene had three daughters, Leah, Sara, and Rebecca.
She was a resident of
Bridgewater Township, New Jersey
Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central Jersey, Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Comm ...
.
Bibliography
She wrote more than thirty books in a range of genres, from
picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
s (''The Carp in the Bathtub'', 1972) to retellings of
Biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
stories (e.g., ''The Binding of Isaac'', 1978; ''David'', 1995) to classical literature (''Four Canterbury Tales'', 1987) to young adult
dystopia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
s (''Unicorns in the Rain'', 1980).
She was recognized several times for her work, being awarded the
Association of Jewish Libraries
The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) is an international organization dedicated to the production, collection, organization and dissemination of Judaic resources and library/media/information service. AJL has members in the United States, Can ...
Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award (1980) and the Sydney Taylor Picture Book Award (1981).
Among her other books are,:Barbara Cohen bibliography at Scholastic /ref>
* ''Thank You,
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...
'' (1974) – companion to ''R—My Name is Rosie'' and ''The Innkeeper’s Daughter''
* ''Bitter Herbs and Honey'' (1976)
* ''Where's Florrie?'' (1976)
* ''Benny'' (1977)
* ''R—My Name is Rosie'' (1978) – companion to ''The Innkeeper's Daughter'' and ''Thank You, Jackie Robinson''
* ''The Innkeeper's Daughter'' (1979)- autobiographical fiction, companion to ''Thank You, Jackie Robinson'' and ''R—My Name is Rosie''
* ''Lovely Vassilisa'' (1980)
* ''I Am Joseph'' (1980)
* ''Fat Jack'' (1980)
* ''Yussel's Prayer: a Yom Kippur Story'' (1981)
* ''Queen for a Day'' (1981)
* ''Gooseberries to oranges'' (1982)
* ''King of the Seventh Grade'' (1982)
* ''Seven Daughters and Seven Sons'' (1982)
* ''The Demon Who Would Not Die'' (1982)
* ''Lovers' Games'' (1983)
* ''Molly's Pilgrim'' (1983) - adapted as the Academy Award-winning short film of the same name in 1985
* ''Here Come the Purim Players'' (1984)
* ''Roses'' (1984)
* ''The Secret Grover'' (1985)
* ''The Donkey's Story: a Bible Story'' (1985)
* ''Coasting'' (1985)
* ''Even Higher'' (1987)- a retelling of ''If Not Higher'' by
Isaac Leib Peretz
Isaac Leib Peretz ( pl, Icchok Lejbusz Perec, yi, יצחק־לייבוש פרץ) (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Cha ...
* ''First Fast'' (1987)
* ''Four Canterbury Tales'' (1987)
* ''The Christmas Revolution'' (1987)- companion to ''The Long Way Home''
* ''The Orphan Game'' (1988)
* ''People Like Us'' (1989)
* ''Tell Us Your Secret'' (1989)
* ''The Long Way Home'' (1990) – companion to ''The Christmas Revolution''
* ''213 Valentines'' (1991)
* ''Make a Wish, Molly'' (1994)
* ''Robin Hood and Little John'' (1995)
* ''The Chocolate Wolf'' (1996)
Other awards
* 1983:
National Jewish Book Award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.
*1983:
National Jewish Book Award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.