The Author of the Month for December is...Jean Merrill!

I promise I'll write that last fantasy post soon! I just didn't want to let half of December slip away before announcing the author of the month, as I've done the last few months. Unfortunately I could not find a picture of this month's author. I don't think she's as well-known as some of the ones I've done before, but she's still very good.

Jean Merrill was born in Rochester, New York in 1923, but grew up near Lake Ontario. She got her B.A. in English from Allegheny College and began to work as an editor for Scholastic Magazines. She also worked for a magazine called Literary Cavalcade, but left in 1952 to work in India. She wrote several children's picture and chapter books, but she is most famous for The Pushcart War and The Toothpaste Millionaire, in that order. She now lives in Vermont.

Although The Toothpaste Millionaire is a fun book that taught me just about everything I know about business (granted, it isn't much), I really love Jean Merrill for The Pushcart War. It takes second place on the list of the funniest books I've ever read. Written like a historical account, it tells the story of a war between the pushcart drivers of New York City and the truck drivers who want to crowd them out. What makes it so funny is that, even though almost everything that happens in it is ridiculous, the tone of the writing is always serious, much like some of the real history textbooks I've read. Characters like Frank the Flower and General Anna also help to make it memorable.

I don't know if they print it anymore, but there's an excellent audio version of The Pushcart War that makes the book even funnier than it already was. Check your local library for both the book and audio version - and remember to thank Jean Merrill!