Ann Nolan Clark

Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal. Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Clark graduated from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas at age 21, and married Thomas Patrick Clark on August 6, 1919. She gave birth to an only son, Thomas Patrick, Jr., who later died in World War II. She began her career teaching English at the Highlands University. However, in the early 1920s, she transferred to a job teaching Native American children how to read for the Tesuque pueblo people, which lasted for 25 years. Clark found that the underfunded... Tesuque School couldn’t afford any substantial instructional material. She wrote her own books for the 1st to 4th grade one-room schoolhouse. Between 1940 and 1951, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs published 15 of her books, all relating to her experiences with the Native Americans. Her book In My Mother's House, illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera, was named a Caldecott Honor book in 1942.
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