Gloria Houston
An Author that …. Hits Close to Home
 Born:
Getting Personal
 March 24 in Marion, NC
 Ruth (Ruthie) Greene and J. Myron
Houston (Littlejim)
 Childhood:
 Sunnybrook store
 Played piano
 Wrote stories and plays
 Education:
 ASU: Bachelor’s Degree In Music
Education
 University of South Florida: Master’s in
English Ed.
 University of South Florida: Ph. D.
Career
 Educator:
 Began teaching in
Winston-Salem, NC
 Relocated to Dallas
 Then to New Orleans
 1981-Tampa University of
South Florida
 Author-in-Residence and
Visiting Assistant Professor
in College of Education
Western Carolina
Writer:
1976-Tried to get My
Brother Joey
published
• Rejected 54 times
1982-My Brother
Joey was finally
published
Next wrote The Year
of the Perfect
Christmas Tree
Published Books
 Picture Books:
 My Brother Joey Died (1982)-Written to help adopted daughter to
deal with birthmother’s death.
 The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree (1988)
 But No Candy (1992)
 My Great-Aunt Arizona (1992)Dr. Houston’s favorite
picturebook
 Littlejim’s Gift: An Appalachian Christmas Story (1994)
 Novels:
 Littlejim (1990)
 Mountain Valor (1994)- Civil War Dr. Houston’s favorite novel;
Worked on this book 10 years, while she was getting her Master’s and
Ph.D.
 Littlejim’s Dreams (1997)- Coming of age
 Bright Freedom’s Song (1998)- Underground railroad
“Mountains”
of
Awards
and
Recognition
 Who’s Who…
 in Education
of American Women
in the South/Southwest
International …. of Authors
 Something About the Author
 Contemporary…
Authors
NC Authors
 Forever-Young Author Award,
NC Reading Association
 Junior Authors and Illustrators
 National Literacy Award from
PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION
 1990 Distinguished Alumni Award,
Appalachian State University
 Distinguished Educator-Internationa
Reading Association
 The Author’s Guild
 Society of Children’s Book Writers
& Illustrators
 National Council of Teachers of
English
 Children’s Literature Council
 International Reading Association
 Phi Kappa Phi, education honor
fraternity
Personal Contact
Three page letter concerning a field trip to
Spruce Pine, NC
Follow-up letter concerning field trip
Confirmation email about field trip
Field Trip details – photos
Phone call to confirm date/time of trip
Email after trip
Responses to 4 students about their field trip
experience
“We have lost the concept of reading for
pleasure, for the experience. Dr. Louise
Rosenblatt at NYU says we do not teach students
to read aesthetically, for pleasure. The questions
at the end of books or chapters, the analyses we
subject children to in the classroom is creating a
world of little word processors, not readers!
This is one of my soapbox issues.”
Levi Houston
Matilda
“Valor”-Mountain
Valor
Arizona Houston Hughes
My Great-Aunt Arizona
John Houston
Jim Houston
“Bigjim”-Littlejim
J. Myron Houston
“Littlejim”
Married Ruth (Ruthie)
The Year of the Perfect
Christmas Tree
Gloria Houston
“Lee”- ButNo Candy
Jerry
A Fieldtrip
The Year of the
Perfect Christmas Tree
The Year of the
Perfect Christmas Tree

Setting: Mountains of North Carolina
Main Character: Ruthie Greene Houston

Illustrator: Barbara Cooney

1988 Publisher’s Weekly Best Seller List

Published in Japanese

Sold over 500,000 copies worldwide

The Year of the
Perfect Christmas Tree
My Great-Aunt Arizona
Setting: Mountains of North
Carolina
 Main Character: Arizona Houston
Hughes
 Illustrator: Susan Lamb
 Awards:

Named Notable Children’s Book (ALA)
 Notable Trade Book in the Language
Arts
My Great-Aunt Arizona
Plan of study for the classroom:
 Gloria Houston’s Family Tree
 Read The Year of the Perfect
Christmas Tree -Noting Sunnybrook
Store, the Train Depot, Pine Grove
Church, Grandfather Mountain
 Have students write Dr. Houston
 Plan a field trip to Spruce Pine Visiting
the places that the children read about in
the book and meeting Ruthie.
Plan of study (cont.)
 Students will take pictures
 The pictures will be scrap booked-children will
write captions or paragraphs relating the picture
to the book or connecting it to the fieldtrip.
 Students will illustrate a cover for the
scrapbook.
 Maps will be added to the scrapbook to
encourage students to use map skills.
 Dr. Houston’s family tree will be included to help
children see the connection between the author
and the characters.