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| Constance C. Greene | |
Constance C. Greene, the prolific author of children's books, died on April 7. She was 96.
Among her many books, she is best known for A Girl Called Al, an ALA Notable Book that reviewers called "a warm, funny, utterly real" story about the friendship between two girls in a New York City apartment building. She also wrote Isabelle the Itch and Beat the Turtle Drum, a story about the death of the older of two sisters and based on her own childhood. It was made into an ABC Afterschool Special. Greene always said she knew she was fortunate to be writing during the years when the National Arts Foundation was as supportive of children's books as it was. With a sharp, unsentimental sense of humor, she wrote with "frankness and humor," as a review of Leo the Lioness said. She had an ear for dialogue and identified with the frustrations and headache of adolescents. A New York Times Book Review of Leo the Lioness said, "the author, funny and tender in turn, has a way of picturing human fragilities without malice or savagery."