He wrote for many age, from pictures books to young adult stories. His children inspired him to create a series of books about two pigs named Oliver and Amanda.
Jean van Leiuven, a prize-winning children’s book writer, whose popular characters included Nutritious brothers and sisters Oliver and Amanda Pig and a courageous, Cacasore Mouse named Marwin The magffickent, K Chappaqwa on March 3, was 87 in her home in NY.
His daughter Elizabeth Gavril said that the reason for this was cancer.
Ms. van Leiuven (pronunciation Lu-NE) wrote about 60 books for readers in age groups, from picture books to young adult fiction. She was well known for her 20 thin versions about an anthropomorphic pig family – for emerging readers, 4to 6 – 6 – which began in 1979 with “Oliver Pig” (illustrated by Arnold Lobel). The series continued for 29 years, ending with “Amanda Pig and Vigli Tooth” (illustrated by Ann Schinninger), in which Amanda’s tooth becomes loose after a large cutting of a peanut butter sandwich.
Ms. van Leuven wrote some books before her children’s birth – David Gavril, in 1972, and Elizabeth Gavril, a year later. But looking at his everyday behavior inspired him to tap a series of small stories on his portable typewriter about a little boy and girl. He turned them into animal children and then, in particular, in pigs. In 1981, “Oliver Pig” “more stories of Oliver Pig” and a year later “Tales of Oliver Pig” after “Amanda Pig and her elder brother”.
Novelist Mary Gordon wrote about “Amanda Pig” in 1985 in The New York Times Book Review, said that Oliver and Amanda is his ability to play ridiculous and trivial and sick and sick and repeatedly quarreling to get ridiculous and sick and sick to get involved in every day of his life.
David Gavril said in an interview that his mother was “very attentive” and was taking “very prudent” notes about his and his sister’s life. In a separate interview, Elizabeth Gavril said: “I don’t remember that the character was pigs. It is a universal thing in children’s publication that animals can have human characteristics.”
Ms. Schinynger, whose watercolors, portrayed 18 of 20 Oliver and Amanda Books, said over time “the stories became a bit wider than the beginners when their children were at home.”
He said, “They were growing up, their level of activity increased and they were going to school,” he said.
Ms. Van Leuven won the Theodore Cesle Award for the American Library Association for “Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day” in 2006. The award has been given to contribute to the initial readers books.
He also received the Washington Irving Children Book Choice Award from the Westchester Library System in 1996, which is about “Emma Bean” (illustrated by Juan Vijnagard), a homemade rabbit and her loving girl.
Reviewing the books of two children at the Times Book Review in 1987, Ms. van Leuven told how to reach the young readers: “The challenge of writing an easy-to-read book, length and vocabulary with its strict limitations, is to tell a story that is simple but not ordinary.”
Jean Van Leiuven was born on 26 December 1937 at Glenn Ridge, NJ, and grew up in a nearby Rutherford. His father, Cornellius, was a minister, and his mother, Dorothy (Charlton) Van Leuven, was a teacher. Jean read newspapers and magazines, who brought her parents home.
After graduating from Syrakuse University School of Journalism (now Newhouse School of Public Communications) in 1959, she wrote for a TV guide and became a children’s book editor in 1963. He worked for Random House, Viking Press and Dial Books, for 10 years for 10 years for 10 years.
Fellis Phogelman, a former chairman of dial books for young readers – who was the boss of Ms. Van Leven before becoming her editor, a relationship that continued for decades – told The Times in 1995 that Ms. Van Leaven’s “Pitch Always Perfect” and “are a clever touch with the character of Jean.
The Times reported that Ms. van Leuven wrote by that year that 28 books had sold two million copies.
His books also include “The Great Cheese Conspiracy” (1969), in which he introduced the early readers of Marvin the Magnetic, a difficult bragart of a mouse, which rotates with his rodent pulse, fat and ramund. It was adapted to an animated film by director Vaclav Bedich in 1986, in Czech language.
In “The Great Christmas Kidnapping Shapar” (1975), The Gang, who lives in a dollhouse in the toy department of a Massey, leaves to save the person playing Santa Claus. And in “The Great Rescue Operation” (1982), the fat disappears when his napping place, a doll car, is sold while he is sleeping in it.
Ms. Van Leuven also wrote “Benzi and the Power of Zingis” (1982), about a third grader who believes that overwinduling in a grain promoted by star athletes will make them stronger. His young adult novel “seems to be the road forever” (1979) is about a minister’s teenage daughter who recalls her self-destructive behavior from her hospital bed. And, in “Ever Wide Dark Sea: The Meflower Journey” (1995), he wrote a historic fiction picture book, recited by a boy, which describes the path of pilgrims from England in 1620 to Plymouth Harbor from England.
In addition to her daughter and her son – who portrayed her mother’s book “Chicken Soup” (2009) – Ms. Van Leivan is alive by her husband, Bruce Gavril; Two grandchildren; His sister, Barbara Kosuth; And his brother, John Van Leuven.
For many years, Ms. van Leuven voluntarily said at the primary school in Chappakwa that her children had participated, helped the first grader with her writing.
“They did not know her as a writer; they knew her as Mrs. Gavril,” her daughter said. “At the end of the year, he was told that Jean Van Leuven, whose books he was reading, would talk in the classroom.
“Then surprisingly revealed that it was Mrs. Gavril.”
