Occupation Author, bookseller Role Author Name Dorothy Butler | Children Eight Spouse(s) Roy Edward Butler | |
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Full Name Muriel Dorothy Norgrove Died September 20, 2015, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, New Zealand Books Babies need books, My Brown Bear Barney, Cushla and her books, Reading begins at home, All This & a Bookshop Too | ||
Dorothy Butler Gilliam - Why the Media Is More Important Than Ever | The Daily Show
Muriel Dorothy Butler (née Norgrove, 24 April 1925 – 20 September 2015) was a New Zealand children's book author, bookseller, memoirist and reading advocate.
Contents
- Dorothy Butler Gilliam Why the Media Is More Important Than Ever The Daily Show
- UChicagos MLK Celebration 2018 with Dorothy Butler Gilliam Post Event QA with Melissa Gilliam
- Personal life
- Work
- Awards
- References
UChicago's MLK Celebration 2018 with Dorothy Butler Gilliam, Post Event Q&A with Melissa Gilliam
Personal life
Butler was born in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn on 24 April 1925, the daughter of William Victor Norgrove and his wife Emily Isobel Norgrove (née Brown). She was educated at Auckland Girls' Grammar School, before studying at Auckland University College, from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1947. She became engaged to her future husband, Roy Edward Butler, in August 1945. They went on to have eight children together, six daughters and two sons.
Butler died on 20 September 2015 in Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland.
Work
She founded the famed Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop in Auckland which remains a going concern, albeit under new ownership. A brief history of the bookshop's early years was reported in the April 1977 issue of the Horn Book magazine.
Canadian writer Michele Landsberg described Butler's Babies Need Books as a "a trail-blazing and completely accessible book, written with charm and vivacity and detailed, helpful advice" and said that Cushla and Her Books was notable as "a dramatic, true and detailed account of how the life of a multiply handicapped child was transformed through picture books. Indispensable for parents and teachers of handicapped children." Jim Trelease retold the story of Cushla in several editions of The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Awards
Butler was awarded a Diploma in Education from the University of Auckland for her study of her severely handicapped granddaughter Cushla; this research was later adapted for publication as Cushla and Her Books.
Butler won the Children's Book Circle Eleanor Farjeon Award in 1980.
In 1992, Butler became the second recipient of the Margaret Mahy Award, whose winners present and publish a lecture concerning children's literature or literacy. Butler's lecture was titled Telling Tales.
In the 1993 New Year Honours, Butler was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to children's literature.