Heidbreder, Robert 1947-

Personal

Surname is pronounced "Hide-bred-er"; born March 3, 1947, in Quincy, IL; immigrated to Canada, 1970; became Canadian citizen, 1975; son of Harry J. (a salesman) and Bernice M. (a homemaker) Heidbreder; married Jane M. Flick (a university professor), 1972. Education: Grinnell College, B.A. (classical languages and literature), 1969; graduate study at University of Washington—Seattle, 1969-70; attended University of British Columbia, 1970-73 (classics) and 1974-75 (teacher education program). Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, reading, writing, bicycling, swimming, hiking, cat-caring.

Addresses

Home—Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail—rkbheid@rogers.com.

Career

Writer. Vancouver School Board, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, primary school teacher, 1975-2005; has given numerous readings, lectures, workshops, and conferences on poetry and language development, 1986—.

Member

Writer's Union of Canada, Children Writers and Illustrators, British Columbia Teachers' Federation, Phi Beta Kappa.

Awards, Honors

Our Choice selection, Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC), 2000, for Python Play and Other Recipes for Fun; Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award shortlist, 2000, Parent's Choice award, 2000, and CCBC Our Choice selection, 2001, all for I Wished for a Unicorn; Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, 2002; CCBC Our Choice selection, 2004, for See Saw Saskatchewan; CCBC Our Choice selection, 2004, and Children's Choices Award, International Reading Association, Blue Spruce Award, Ontario Library Association, Great Book Award, Canada Toy Testing Council, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award shortlist, and Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award shortlist, all 2005, and British Columbia Children's Choice Chocolate Lily Award, all for Drumheller Dinosaur Dance; CCBC Our Choice selection, 2006, for Crocodiles Say …; Best Bets Picture Book designation, Ontario Library Association, 2007, Chocolate Lily Award nomination, 2009, and Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, all for A Sea-Wishing Day; Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award shortlist, and TD Canadian Children's Literature Award finalist, both 2008, both for Lickety-Split.

Writings

Don't Eat Spiders (poems), illustrated by Karen Patkau, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1985.

(Compiler and contributor) I Hate Dinosaurs, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1992.

Eenie Meenie Manitoba: Playful Poems from Coast to Coast, illustrated by Scot Ritchie, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Python Play and Other Recipes for Fun (poems), illustrated by Karen Patkau, Stoddart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999 Stoddart (New York, NY), 2000.

I Wished for a Unicorn, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

See Saw Saskatchewan: More Playful Poems from Coast to Coast, illustrated by Scot Ritchie, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, illustrated by Bill Slavin and Esperança Melo, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Crocodiles Say …, illustrated by Rae Maté, Tradewind Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2005.

A Sea-wishing Day, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Lickety-Split, illustrated by Dusan Petricić, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Crocodiles Play, illustrated by Rae Maté, Tradewind Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2008.

A Black and Bittern Night, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2009.

Poems collected in anthologies, including Spooky Poems, Children's Poems, Oxford University Press, 1988; So Whales Jump at Night?, Groundwood, 1990; A Cup of Starshine, Walker Books, 1991; For Laughing out Loud, Knopf, 1991; Mathworks, Books A and B, Houghton-Mifflin, 1992; and Scared Silly, Little, Brown, 1994. Author of five guide books for Houghton-Mifflin/Nelson Canada's literature-based "Waves" reading series, 1992-93. Poems published in Ladybug.

Adaptations

Wished for a Unicorn was animated for The Bittles, a Canadian children's television program.

Sidelights

Robert Heidbreder is a former schoolteacher whose works for children have earned critical acclaim for their fanciful rhyming text and diverse subject matter. Heidbreder is especially well known for his verse collections, such as Eenie Meenie Manitoba: Playful Poems from Coast to Coast, and he has received numerous honors for his work, including the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize for A Sea-wishing Day.

Born in Quincy, Illinois, Heidbreder immigrated to Canada in 1970 and became a Canadian citizen five years later; he went on to teach elementary school in Vancouver, British Columbia, for thirty years. In his first poetry collection, Don't Eat Spiders, he addresses a number of topics that are of universal interest to children. The volume contains pieces on peculiarly Canadian subjects, such as Newfoundland Cod, but most are dedicated to celebrating familiar subjects such as rocket ships, Halloween and Valentine's Day, and the letters of the alphabet. "In Robert Heidbreder," wrote Quill & Quire reviewer Adele Ashby, "the editors of Oxford University Press have found a poet who does understand what delights children, in terms of both form and content." In addition, noted School Library Journal critic Alice Cronin, "the strong cadence" of Heidbreder's poems "makes Don't Eat Spiders superior for reading aloud."

Heidbreder's next collection, Eenie, Meenie, Manitoba, continues the ambitions of his first. Here he rewrites classic nursery rhymes such as "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear," replacing terms

and ideas now deemed politically incorrect with others, often with a Canadian focus, such as geography or the names of common Canadian animals. "These simple poems will appeal most to preschool and primary school children," predicted Janet McNaughton in Quill & Quire. In See Saw Saskatchewan: More Playful Poems from Coast to Coast, a companion volume, Heidbreder offers thirty-seven poems that playfully examine Canadian geography and wildlife. "This unique, funny, original and distinctly Canadian work is a collection of exuberant rhymes," noted Resource Links contributor Connie Forst, who added that Heidbreder's poetry "lends itself very well to skipping poems, action rhymes and tongue twisters." Writing in the Canadian Review of Materials, Wayne Serebrin praised the author's "clever, silly" verse and "light-hearted poetic language." Python Play and Other Recipes for Fun is, as its title suggests, full of poems celebrating children's play, including bicycles, mud, and playground activities. "Each poem is energetic and appealing, and avoids the common pitfalls of being too long, too clippity-cloppity, or too cute," remarked Loris Lesynski in Quill & Quire.

I Wished for a Unicorn centers on a young child who wishes for a unicorn so hard that the family dog magically becomes the mythical animal and the two spend the day fighting dragons, outwitting wizards, and evading monsters in the moat. "The sparse, rhyming text works well as a read-aloud," noted Sharon McNeil in School Library Journal. In A Sea-wishing Day, another child's imagination transforms a wading pool into a watery expanse. With a trusty canine companion, the youngster climbs aboard a passing ship and heads to sea, where child and dog encounter a sea serpent, a band of pirates, and an amiable porpoise. In Booklist, Carolyn Phelan praised the "inventive" nature of Heidbreder's "high-blown nautical language," and a Kirkus Reviews contributor stated that the "rousing poem is precise, colorful and accessible, a terrific combination for young readers."

The city of Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, billed as the "Dinosaur Capital of the World," is the focus of Heidbreder's Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, told in rhyming couplets. Each night when the sun sets, the dinosaur bones buried beneath Drumheller rise from the earth, reassemble themselves, and throw a lively dance party attended by a host of pajama-clad youngsters. According to a Publishers Weekly critic, "the prehistoric pals cavort with abandon to a bone-shaking beat," and Denise Parrott, writing in Resource Links, called the work "just plain fun." In Crocodiles Say … a trio of smiling, polite crocodiles offer helpful hints about proper table manners and tooth-brushing techniques, though readers find that the scaly creatures often fail to heed their own advice. "Children will enjoy the humourous disorder," wrote Linda Ludke in Resource Links, and Quill & Quire reviewer Sarah Ellis described Heidbreder's story as "a good-natured, tongue-in-cheek riff on rules and discipline."

A young boy tries to impress a pretty lass with feats of derring-do, including tightrope-walking, pancake-juggling, and dragon-taming, in Heidbreder's Lickety-Split. Using onomatopoeia as a linguistic device, the author describes the child's adventures with rhythmic, hyphenated phrases. "Read aloud, Lickety-Split creates a soundscape that is both intriguing and invigorating," Gregory Bryan wrote in the Canadian Review of Materials. "Perhaps above all though, it is simply fun."

Heidbreder once told SATA: "When I was a young boy, I wanted a horse. But I got a mule instead. It was a real mule's mule—a strong-willed sitter. After I'd finally managed to crawl up to ride on it, it would usually sit down and I'd go slip-sliding off into the dirt. Then it would do its mule honk and turn around and look at me—proudly and playfully. That used to drive me cucumbers, as my grandpa said. But the mule began to teach me patience. I learned how to coax it, play with it, laugh at its games, and trick it into a ride. We'd go moseying around the farm and I'd sometimes make up a little chant, like:

Mule, mule, break a rule.

Take me to a swimming pool.

"It never did, of course, because before we got too far, it would decide ‘Sit time!’ and down I'd go—swish!

"That mule, my own kind of unicorn, I now realize, led me into writing and teaching—both jobs that require patience, coaxing, and playful strategies.

"So whenever I'm asked ‘What started you writing?’ I like to answer ‘Oh, a mule!’ And ‘What made you decide to become a primary teacher?’ ‘Oh, a mule!’ It's a lively answer to two jobs I really love and two jobs where patience is the best rule. I just wish I could remember what the mule's name was!"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2000, Gillian Engberg, review of I Wished for a Unicorn, p. 1545; March 15, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Sea-wishing Day, p. 53.

Books in Canada, November, 1996, Geoffrey Cook, review of Eenie, Meenie, Manitoba, p. 32.

Canadian Review of Materials, September 19, 2003, Wayne Serebrin, review of See Saw Saskatchewan: More Playful Poems From Coast to Coast; November 9, 2007, Gregory Bryan, review of Lickety-Split.

Childhood Education, winter, 2000, Catherine Lawbook, review of I Wished for a Unicorn, p. 108; winter, 2007, Ivis Coll, review of A Sea-wishing Day, p. 107.

Horn Book, May-June, 1986, Sarah Ellis, "News from the North," pp. 354-355.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2007, review of A Sea-wishing Day, p. 123; August 1, 2007, review of Lickety-Split.

Ladybug, March, 1996, "Meet the Author."

Publishers Weekly, October 11, 2004, review of Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, p. 78; March 26, 2007, review of A Sea-wishing Day, p. 92.

Quill & Quire, February, 1986, Adele Ashby, "Poetry: One Hit, Four Misses," p. 22; November, 1996, Janet McNaughton, review of Eenie Meenie Manitoba, p. 45; December, 1999, Loris Lesynski, review of Python Play, p. 39; July, 2004, Patty Lawlor, review of Drumheller Dinosaur Dance; November, 2005, Sarah Ellis, review of Crocodiles Say.

Resource Links, April, 2003, Connie Forst, review of See Saw Saskatchewan, p. 3; December, 2004, Denise Parrott, review of Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, p. 3; February, 2006, Linda Ludke, review of Crocodiles Say, p. 4; June, 2007, Ken Kilback, review of A Sea-wishing Day, p. 3; October, 2007, Tanya Boudreau, review of Lickety-Split, p. 5.

School Library Journal, April, 1987, Alice Cronin, review of Don't Eat Spiders, p. 83; August, 2000, Sharon McNeil, review of I Wished for a Unicorn, p. 156; September, 2000, Sally R. Dow, review of Python Play, p. 218; December, 2004, Julie Roach, review of Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, p. 110.

ONLINE

Kids Can Press Web site,http://www.kidscanpress.com/ (December 15, 2008), "Robert Heidbreder."