Literature and the Child

After teaching in elementary- and middle-school classrooms for a number of years, Lee Galda received her Ph.D. in English Education from New York University. A former professor at the University of Georgia, she is now a professor at the University of Minnesota where she teaches courses in children's and young adult literature. Lee is a member of the International Reading Association and the United States Board on Books for Young People, working on various committees related to literature. She was children's books department editor for The Reading Teacher from 1989 to 1993; a member of the 2003 Newbery Committee; a member of the International Reading Association Book Award Selection Committee for the past five years, co-chairing that committee in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012; and a member of the USBBY Bridge to Understanding Award Committee in 2008 through 2010, chairing that committee in 2011. She sits on the review boards of several professional journals and on the editorial boards of Children's Literature in Education and Journal of Children's Literature. Author of numerous articles and book chapters about children's literature and response, she was lead author of the first chapter on children's literature appearing in the HANDBOOK OF READING RESEARCH (Volume III). In 2011, Lee received the International Reading Association's Arbuthnot Award for excellence in teaching children's literature. Lee lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband. Bernice E. Cullinan was born on October 12, 1926 in Hamilton, Ohio. She began her career as an elementary school teacher as she pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies at Ohio State University. She was an instructor and assistant professor at Ohio State University from 1959 to 1967 before moving to an associate professor position at New York University in 1967. She taught there for 30 years. She received many honors for her teaching and advocacy work including induction into the IRA's Reading Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1990, she was named editor-in-chief of Wordsong, the newly created poetry imprint at Boyds Mills Press, a position she held until 2008. During her lifetime, she wrote or edited more than 40 books including Children's Literature in the Reading Program (IRA) and Literature and the Child. She died on February 5, 2015 at the age of 88.