''Strawberry Girl'' is a
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished cont ...
winning novel written and illustrated by
Lois Lenski
Lois Lenore Lenski Covey (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974) was a Newbery Medal-winning author and illustrator of picture books and children's literature. Beginning in 1927 with her first books, ''Skipping Village'' and ''Jack Horner's Pie: ...
. First published in 1945, this
realistic fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
children's book, set among the
"Crackers" of rural Florida, is one in Lenski's series of
regional novels.
Background
''Strawberry Girl'' is the second and best known of Lenski's series of regional books. She wrote them specifically to "present vivid, sympathetic pictures of the real life of different kinds of Americans".
Lenski approached each book seriously; moving into the communities; sketching the plants, animals, homes and especially the children. She lived with the people she wrote about and listened to their stories, bringing a realism that makes her books unique.
The sketches she made become the basis for her illustrations for the books.
The term Cracker refers to the descendants of Anglo-Saxon pioneer settlers in early Florida. Lenski said of ''Strawberry Girl'', "My material has been gathered personally from the Crackers themselves... I have visited in Cracker homes." She goes on to say that most of the incidents used in the book come from stories she was told by the people she met, though she may have altered them to fit the plot.
Editions
*First Edition, J. B. Lippincott, 1945;
*Dell Yearling, 1956;
*60th Anniversary Edition, Harper Trophy, 2005, (revised).
''Strawberry Girl'' is available in braille, large print, and on eBook, as well as CD and MP3.
See also
References
External links
Lois Lenski – short biography
{{Newbery Medal
1945 American novels
Newbery Medal–winning works
American children's novels
Florida cracker culture
Novels set in Florida
J. B. Lippincott & Co. books
1945 children's books
Novels by Lois Lenski