David Abraham Adler (born April 10, 1947) is the author of nearly
200 books for children and young adults, most notably the Cam
Jansen mystery series, the "Picture Book of..." series, and several
acclaimed works about the Holocaust for young readers. Adler was
born in New York City, New York. He graduated from Queens College
in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For
the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New
York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a
master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York
University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his
then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story,
A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976.
Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his
experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous
character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the
Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was published that year.
Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first
child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a
break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he
stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing
career. Adler has three children and one grandson. He lives in
Woodmere, New York. Robert Casilla was born in Jersey City, New
Jersey to parents from Puerto Rico. Like many children, Robert
always loved to draw. As the new kid in his second grade class, he
recalls doing a drawing of two birds with colored chalk on
construction paper. His teacher noticed the drawing and then told
the class, "We have an artist in the class!" Robert is thankful to
her and all the teachers that motivated and helped him realize he
had talent as an artist. Although he grew up in New Jersey, he did
get to attend school in Puerto Rico as a fourth grader.
His formal training in art took place at the School of Visual Arts
in New York City where he earned a BFA degree.
Since 1984, Robert has worked as a freelance illustrator for
magazines, book publishers, postage stamps, educational publishers
and others.
He has illustrated over 25 children's books, many of which are
picture book biographies of people such as Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks and John F. Kennedy. He has also
illustrated many multicultural children's books such as Jalapeno
Bagels, The Little Painter of Sabana Grande, The Legend of Mexicatl
and First Day in Grapes which won the Pura Belpre Honor Award.
Robert visits many schools to talk about the visual journey a story
takes him through to come up with the illustrations for his books.
He also teaches art to young gifted artist one day a week.
Robert lives and works from his home in New Fairfield, Connecticut
with his wife and two children, 3 cats and his feisty shih tzu dog.
Gr 2-4-- Chronicling the life of a famous person such as Owens in approximately 25 pages, some with no text and the others with only a short paragraph or two, is a formidable task. Adler does as well as can be expected with these limitations. The portrait presented, although brief, is accurate and touches on the major events of the track-and-field champion's life. An interesting author note attempts to discern the facts from the fictional stories that exist concerning Owens's experiences during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Casilla contributes full-page watercolor paintings that nicely complement and expand the writing. Although containing hardly enough information for more than a brief report, this title meets the need of primary-grade children who are assigned or are interested in biographies. --Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
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