Francelia Butler, Conference Namesake

     This year marks a decade since Francelia Butler’s death, Sept. 17, 1998, at age 85.  She was known as the creator of a lively course in the relatively new academic field of children’s literature, staged at the University of Connecticut. Her keen wit and intelligence combined with her robust entertaining style ensured that children’s illustrators and authors of the day would visit with her students.

      Dr. Butler earned her Ph.D. at the age of 50 from the University of Virginia in 1963.  As a leader in the children’s literature field, she made a special study of skip rope rhymes; she once noted that the literature style of Theodor S. Giesel (aka Dr. Seuss, and our 2008 conference theme), was “rollicking and easily remembered…so rhythmic it can be skipped to.”

       Our student conference owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Butler.  Her suggestion to move the journal she co-founded, Children’s Literature to Hollins, and her donation of an extensive children’s literature collection of books to our library, was a catalyst in the creation of our graduate program in children’s literature.  So bring your skip rope and your curiosity to the conference to learn more about the fabulous Francelia Butler.