Who Wrote This Kid Classic? (1)

[B] Maurice Sendak | Originally titled "Where the Wild Horses Are" until Sendak admitted he couldn't draw horses. Max's wolf suit inspired by his own childhood terrors.

[A] Lewis Carroll | Math professor Charles Dodgson improvised this tale rowing with three young girls. Victorian Oxford's psychedelic trip down logic's rabbit hole.

[C] Astrid Lindgren | Created to entertain her sick daughter, Pippi was too radical for publishers initially. Sweden's anarchist redhead conquered world literature anyway.

[D] Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Written in New York exile during WWII, illustrated with his own watercolors. Author vanished over Mediterranean, leaving fox's wisdom eternal.

[A] JRR Tolkien | Started with "In a hole in the ground" scribbled on exam paper. Tolkien's children heard it first, publishers almost rejected it.

[D] Philip Pullman | Milton-inspired fantasy written in Oxford shed for warmth. Pullman typed wearing fingerless gloves, daemon concept born from loneliness.

[C] CS Lewis | Wardrobe inspired by childhood evacuees Lewis hosted. Turkish Delight chosen because wartime rationing made candy exotic and tempting.

[C] AA Milne and EH Shepard | Based on son Christopher Robin's actual toys, now in New York Public Library. Milne resented Pooh's success overshadowing serious writing.

[A] EB White and Garth Williams | White watched barn spider for year before writing. Struggled with ending until realizing Charlotte must die—children handle truth.

[D] Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake | Dahl made Matilda nasty originally, editor convinced him to make her nice. Written in garden shed with hot water bottle on lap.

[C] LM Montgomery | Canadian author who set Anne in Prince Edward Island. She drew on a newspaper story about an orphan girl and her own PEI childhood.

[B] Hans Christian Andersen | Son of washerwoman and shoemaker, ugly duckling was autobiography. Cut paper silhouettes while telling stories to aristocratic children.

[B] JK Rowling | Written in Edinburgh cafés while baby slept. Twelve publishers rejected it; Bloomsbury chairman's daughter demanded next chapter.

[A] Eric Carle | Hole-punch idea came from playing with paper punch. Carle's tissue paper collage technique learned from German art teacher.

[A] Susan Cooper | Written homesick for Britain while living in America. Celtic mythology mixed with Arthurian legend during Massachusetts winters.

[C] Shaun Tan | Wordless graphic novel inspired by father's immigration photos. Tan spent years drawing imaginary alphabets and bizarre vegetables.

[C] Louisa May Alcott | Publisher wanted "girls' book"; Alcott thought it boring. Based on her sisters; Jo's stories were Louisa's actual juvenilia.

[A] Roald Dahl | Cadbury sent chocolate samples to Dahl's boarding school for testing. Schoolboy dreams became Wonka's factory forty years later.

[B] Johanna Spyri | Written in four weeks to pay debts after husband's death. Swiss tourism board's best unpaid advertisement for 140 years.

[A] Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd | Brown wrote it in half hour. New York Public Library banned it for 25 years—no plot.

[D] Carlo Collodi | Collodi killed Pinocchio in original serialization. Children's letters demanding resurrection forced happy ending we know today.

[D] Ursula K Le Guin | Publishers initially rejected non-white protagonist. Le Guin fought whitewashed covers for decades, finally won.

[C] Tove Jansson | Moomins started as signature doodles mocking Kant in philosophical debates. Finnish winter depression transformed into magical hibernation story.

[D] Jon Klassen | Inspired by Sergio Leone westerns and deadpan comedy. Bear's murder implied through masterful page-turn—darkness disguised as simplicity.

[B] Frances Hodgson Burnett | Written in Long Island mansion after son's death. Garden therapy before psychology invented the term.

[B] Wolf Erlbruch | German illustrator tackled mortality for four-year-olds. Death wears plaid slippers, making existential dread oddly comforting.

[D] Astrid Lindgren | Written to comfort children about death after criticism Pippi never addressed serious topics. Swedish parents complained; children loved it.

[D] JK Rowling | Time-turner plot required wall charts to track. Rowling's favorite because "no one had to die."

[C] Jacqueline Woodson | Memoir in verse written on napkins and receipts. Woodson dyslexic, found poetry easier than prose for truth-telling.

[B] Tomi Ungerer | French anarchist made villains heroes during 1960s conformity. Publishers worried about glorifying criminals; kids understood redemption perfectly.