Ann McGovern Scheiner (née Weinberger; May 25, 1930 – August 8, 2015) was an American writer of more than 55

children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

, selling over 30 million copies. She may be best known for her adaptation of ''

Stone Soup Stone Soup is a European Folklore, folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedib ...

'', as well as ''Too Much Noise'', historical and travel non-fiction, and biographies of figures like

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, us ...

and

Deborah Sampson Deborah Sampson Gannett, also known as Deborah Samson or Deborah Sampson, (December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827) was a Massachusetts woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary ...

and

Eugenie Clark Eugenie Clark (May 4, 1922 – February 25, 2015), popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the fie ...

Early life

Born in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

, she enrolled in the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

but dropped out to marry her English professor. The marriage ended and she moved back, at age 22, to New York City with her 18-month old son. In attempting to support herself and become a writer, she found a job at the publisher of

Little Golden Books The Little Golden Books is an American series of children's books, published since 1942. '' The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden ...

stamping galley prints. She published several books at Golden Books.

Career

Artists for her books include

Ezra Jack Keats Ezra Jack Keats (né Jacob Ezra Katz; March 11, 1916 - May 6, 1983) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for '' The Snowy Day'', which won the 1963 Caldecott Medal and is considered one of the most importa ...

, Simms Taback,

Tomie de Paola Thomas Anthony "Tomie" dePaola (; September 15, 1934 – March 30, 2020) was an American writer and illustrator who created more than 260 children's books, such as '' Strega Nona''. He received the Children's Literature Legacy Award for his lifeti ...

and Mort Gerberg. She eventually moved into the

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

house at 75½ Bedford Street, the narrowest house in New York, which inspired ''Mr Skinner's Skinny House'' (). She married Martin Scheiner in 1970, the inventor of the first cardiac monitor for operating rooms, and adopted his three grown children. They lived together in the

Usonia Historic District Usonia Historic District is a planned community and national historic district in the Town of Mount Pleasant, adjacent to the village of Pleasantville, Westchester County, New York. History In 1945, a rural tract was purchased by a cooperat ...

community in

Westchester, New York Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous coun ...

. She published four books of poetry in the 2000s, and began blogging about her cancer in 2014.

Death

McGovern died of cancer in New York City on August 8, 2015, aged 85.Obituary
nytimes.com; accessed August 12, 2015.
publishersweekly.com; accessed August 12, 2015.

Selected works

* ''Mr Skinner's Skinny House'' * ''Aesop's Fables'' * ''Little Whale'' * ''Runaway Slave: The Story of Harriet Tubman'' * ''Black is Beautiful'' * ''

'' * ''Too Much Noise'' - 1967 * ''Eggs on Your Nose'' * ''Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest'' * ''Christopher Columbus'' * ''The Desert Beneath the Sea'' * ''Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark'' * ''The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson'' - 1975 * ''Night Dive'' - 1984 * ''If You Sailed on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620'' - 1969 * ''The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving'' - 1973 * ''Nicholas Bentley Stoningpot III'' - 1982 * ''Treasury of Christmas Stories Edited By: Ann McGovern'' - 1960

References

External links

Good Reads

Scholastic
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGovern, Ann 1930 births 2015 deaths American children's writers Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Writers from New York City American women poets American science writers American women non-fiction writers American women children's writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers