As reported Limit date, author Norton Juster, best known for writing iconic and beloved children’s books The Peatom Phantom i The point and the line-Died. Juster’s death was confirmed by his publisher, Penguin Random House, and an NPR report he says he died of complications related to a recent stroke. He was 91 years old.
Juster was born in Brooklyn in 1929, following in the footsteps of his father and brother (who were architects) studying urban planning and architecture at university. He joined the Navy’s corps of civil engineers in the 1950s, where he began writing and illustrating stories to pass the time. After leaving the army, Juster worked as an architect and was able to combine his two interests when he received a grant to write “a book on cities for children” (as he says in this piece of NPR). Unfortunately, after finishing “up to the waist in a stack of 3 by 5 cards, exhausted and discouraged,” Juster realized that he didn’t to want to write a children’s book about cities and decided to write something that would please the kind of “quiet, introverted, and grumpy” child he had been.
From there, Juster began writing a book about an always boring and selfless boy named Milo who one day returns home from school and finds a mysterious package containing a map of a place called “The Lands Beyond ”And a small toll. From here you embark on an adventure full of puns with a literal watchdog that is both delightful and educational, not only in the sense that it teaches children many new and exciting words and ideas, but it actually makes learn about these things. fun. That book, The Peatom Phantom, is now considered an absolute classic of children’s literature, as it has sold millions of copies and been translated into several languages. It was also adapted into an animated film by Chuck Jones, although Juster himself was not a fan (in 2011, he said The AV Club that Jones had treated the book “like the Holy Grail” and refused to change anything in the text, even if it had improved the film).
The Peatom Phantom it was actually Jones’ second adaptation of one of Juster’s books, the other The dot and the line: a romance in lower mathematics. The book, published in 1963, is about a straight line that falls in love with a dot, only to find out that the dot is in love with a squeal. With the goal of improving, the line learns to bend, changing its shape in new and complex ways. In the end, the line impresses the point with its new appreciation for change, while the scream is permanently stuck as a mess, resulting in another excellent pun: “To the vector belongs the booty.” Jones ‘adaptation (although some say the short was directed by Jones’ collaborator Maurice Noble) won the Oscar for best animated short film and, as The ghost toll– It has become a staple food in classrooms.
Juster’s other works include 2005 The window Hello, goodbye and its sequel in 2008, Sourpuss And Sweetie Pie, both (as I explained in this same paper Club AV interview) were inspired by her granddaughter. In addition, despite writing one of the most beloved and generally loved children’s books of all time, Juster continued to work as an architect until he retired.
G / O Media may receive a commission