Author & Text

Author Eve Bunting was born in Ireland in 1928.

Date
December 19
Calendar Activity Type
Author & Text

Event Description

A resident of the United States, Eve Bunting was an acclaimed author of picture books and novels. Bunting's picture books tackled sensitive issues such as homelessness, death, aging, and war. Her books won numerous awards, including the Golden Kite Award and a Caldecott Medal in 1995 for Smoky Night. Eve Bunting passed away in 2023.

Classroom Activity

One trademark of Bunting's picture books is her ability to see events through the eyes of a child. Smoky Night deals with the Los Angeles race riots as seen from the perspective of a young boy watching the fires and the looters. His reactions to this event are, understandably, different from those of his mother and neighbors. Before reading this picture book aloud to students, read them a news article that relates the details of the events in Los Angeles. Ask students how a younger observer might be affected by these events and might see the events differently than an adult. After reading Smoky Night, assess the accuracy of students' perceptions.

As an alternative or follow-up activity, have students locate and read two different accounts of the events of September 11, 2001, one written by an adult and one written by a child. Ask them to compare the two accounts.

Websites

This page from the Reading Rockets website includes the text of an interview with author Eve Bunting, several audio clips of the interview, and an annotated list of some of her most popular books.

 

Kidsreads.com offers a brief biography of Bunting and links to information about a few of her books. The biography is written simply, so it is an excellent resource for younger students to obtain biographical information on Bunting.

 

This feature from Scholastic includes a brief biography of Bunting, the transcript of an interview with her, and a bibliography of her books.

 

Houghton Mifflin offers this collection of classroom activities for use with several of Bunting's books, including Train to Somewhere, The Wednesday Surprise, and The Memory String.

 

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