David Harrison

David Harrison's first book for children, The Boy With a Drum, was released in 1969 and eventually sold more than 2 million copies. In 1972, Harrison won national recognition when he received the Christopher Award for The Book of Giant Stories. Since then, he has published 80 original titles, selling more than 15 million copies and earning numerous honors. He has been anthologized in more than 100 books and appeared in dozens of magazines and professional journals. His work has been translated into 12 languages and presented on television, radio, cassette, CD-ROM, eBook, podcast, DVD, Skype, blog and video stream. His poetry adorns the Children's Garden sidewalk in Phoenix, Ariz., and a bookmobile in Pueblo, Colo. Harrison's poetry inspired Sandy Asher's school play, Somebody Catch My Homework, which has been produced in the United States and abroad. Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends Story, a fourth-grade best friends' play in poetry (also written with Asher) has been praised for its "honesty of characters and use of art and music." In 2011, Jesse and Grace won the Distinguished Play Award given by the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Harrison's Sky High on Reading program was the International Reading Association's nationwide winner in 2001. The Missouri Library Association presented him with its 2007 Literacy Award for the body of his work. Among Harrison's professional books are Easy Poetry Lessons That Dazzle and Delight, with Bernice Cullinan (Scholastic); Using the Power of Poetry to Teach Language Arts; Social Studies, Math, and More, with Kathy Holderith (Scholastic); "Yes, Poetry Can," the poetry chapter for Children's Literature in the Reading Program (3rd Edition, edited by Deborah Wooten and Bernice Cullinan (IRA); Partner Poems for Building Fluency: 40 Engaging Poems for Two Voices With Motivating Activities That Help Students Improve Their Fluency and Comprehension, with Tim Rasinski and Gay Fawcett (Scholastic); Writing Stories (Scholastic Guides); and Phonemic Awareness through Poetry Play, with Mary Jo Fresch (in progress). Beginning fall 2011, Harrison will feature a regular podcast program, This Week with David Harrison, bringing writing tips into the elementary classroom. In the last 15 years, he has been a keynote speaker, banquet speaker, featured speaker, featured author or presenter at 80 state, regional and national conferences in 28 states. Harrison holds science degrees from Emory University and Drury University, where he is a poet laureate, and honorary doctorate of letters degrees from Missouri State University and Drury University. An elementary school is named after him, David Harrison Elementary School in Springfield, Mo. Harrison lives in Springfield with his wife, Sandy, a business owner and retired guidance counselor.