Toni Buzzeo (1951 - )

Genre: Non-Fiction, Children's Literature

Toni Buzzeo was born on 4 October 1951 in Dearborn, Michigan, and raised there, moving to Maine in 1979. She lives now in a colonial farmhouse in Buxton, Maine, with her husband, Ken Cyll, and Belgian sheepdog-mix Indy. Her grown son Topher Cyll lives and works in Boston. Buzzeo earned a B.A. and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and an MLIS in Library and Information Science from the University of Rhode Island. Buzzeo is a former Library Media Specialist, and was chosen Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year in 1999. Previously, she worked as a children's librarian at the Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham, Maine and as a high school and college English teacher.

Her website offers lots of biographical information as well as a links to databases of authors and illustrators available for school visits and tips for facilitating these visits. There's a 2006 interview with Buzzeo on Cynthia Leitich's weblog.

Buzzeo's books for children are:

• The Sea Chest (2002, ill. Mary GrandPre), winner of a Maine Library Association Lupine Honor Award, an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, and the 2004-05 Children's Crown Gallery Award, is a book about adoption, set on a fictional midcoast Maine island and based on the Maine Hendricks Head Light baby-in-the-sea chest legend. It was also named one of four recommended titles in the Time Of Wonder Award selection and was chosen as one of the Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002, by The Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College. Read the story behind The Sea Chest.
• Dawdle Duckling (2003, ill. Margaret Spengler), a Children's Book-of-the-Month Club selection and a Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection. Read the story behind Dawdle Duckling.
• Little Loon and Papa (2004, ill. Margaret Spengler), a Brodart top juvenile title and a Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection.
• Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling (2005, ill. Margaret Spengler)
• Our Librarian Won't Tell Us ANYTHING (2006, illus. Sachiko Yoshikawa), first in the Mrs. Skorupski, librarian, series.
• Fire Up with Reading: A Mrs. Skorupski Story (2007, illus. Sachiko Yoshikawa)
• R is for Research (2008, illus. Nicole Wong), a picture book written in alphabet style, exploring the inner workings of the research report
• The Library Doors (2008, illus. Nadine Westcott)
• The Great Dewey Hunt: A Mrs. Skorupski Story (2009, illus. Sachiko Yoshikawa)
• Adventure Annie Goes to Work (2009, illus. Amy Wummer)
• No T. Rex in the Library (2010, illus. Sachiko Yoshikawa)
• Adventure Annie Goes to Kindergarten (2010, illus. Amy Wummer)
• A Lighthouse Christmas (2010, illus. Nancy Carpenter)
• Elliot's Aquarium Secret (2011?)

Professional books include:

• Terrific Connections with Authors, Illustrators, and Storytellers: Real Space and Virtual Links (with Jane Kurtz, 1999)
• 35 Best Books For Teaching U.S. Regions (2002)
• Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-6 (2002), a textbook
• Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for 7-12 (2002), a textbook
• Toni Buzzeo and YOU (2005), to help teachers teach from Buzzeo's books. Sections include Meet the Author, A Matrix of Learning Activities by Content Standard/Strand, a Bibliography, and chapters on her books The Sea Chest, Dawdle Duckling, Little Loon and Papa, and Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling.
• Read! Perform! Learn! Reader's Theater for Literacy Enhancement (2006)
• Collaborating to Meet Literacy Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-2 (2006)
• Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-6 (2007, 2nd ed.)
• Read! Perform! Learn! Two: 10 More Reader's Theater Projects for Literacy Enhancement (2007)
• The Collaboration Handbook (2008)
• ABC Read to Me: Teaching Letter of the Week in the Library (2009)

Last Update: 07/22/2008

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