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The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature

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IRMA SIMONTON BLACK

Writer and teacher Irma Simonton Black was born on June 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey. A product of public school education, she received an A.B. from Barnard College in 1927, majoring in English and mathematics, and writing for Barnard Barnacle, the college's quarterly magazine, and Barnard Bulletin, the college newspaper.

Following college, she began graduate study at the Bureau of Educational Experiments of the City of New York, where she completed the teacher training course. She also did graduate work at New York University. Irma’s first jobs were at Scribner’s Bookstore in New York City, and at a settlement house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

She began teaching in 1931 at the Harriet Johnson Nursery School in New York, a part of the Bureau of Educational Experiments, where she later remained involved in the music program. Her next position was doing testing and research in child development at the Bureau; and later, she was a faculty member there, teaching children’s literature.

The Bureau became The Bank Street College of Education in 1950, and Irma became the head of the Division of Publications and Communications, a position she held for the rest of her life. She participated in the Writers' Laboratory, conducted by Bank Street founder Lucy Sprague Mitchell, and later became its head. The Writers' Lab was home to many well-respected children's book authors. Irma also taught preschool children at the Boardman School, a private school in New York City.

Irma was an author and editor of The Bank Street Readers, children's books that were the first to have a multicultural, multi-ethnic orientation. Instead of Dick and Jane, the Readers featured recognizable children in urban settings, dealing with real-life situations. Irma also edited the Early Childhood Discovery Materials and Discoveries series for intermediate grades that allowed students to progress from group reading under teacher supervision to individualized reading without a teacher.

Irma was the author of more than twenty children's books, both fiction and nonfiction, and wrote three non-fiction books for adults. She and Lucy Mitchell were also the editors of Believe and Make-Believe, stories by Bank Street writers.

In the 1940s, Irma wrote a weekly newspaper column for PM, and later, The Star, called "Life with Junior." In the '50s and early '60s, she contributed a monthly column, "You and Your Child" to Redbook magazine, articles on art for children to Art in America magazine, and a column, "Books for Young People," to Saturday Review magazine.

She also contributed many articles and reviews of children’s books to popular and professional publications, including Progressive Education, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents' Magazine, Women's Day, The New York Times Book Review, and Journal of Pediatrics. She also wrote for a radio program, The Baby Institute, that featured Jessie Stanton and Benjamin Spock, and contributed to a NYC television program, Winkie Dink.

Irma was awarded the Parents' Magazine honorable mention for children's books, and one of her books was chosen as a Junior Literary Guild selection. Irma also was an accomplished pianist.

Among her professional honors and affiliations were: the National Association for Nursery Education, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Barnard College Alumni Association. She married attorney James Hammond Black in 1934, and the couple had a daughter, Constance Kirkland Black, who married Earl E. Engle; and two grandsons, James Simonton Engle, an artist, and Douglas Harrison Engle, a professional photographer.

At Irma Black's untimely death in 1972, Bank Street College of Education established the annual Irma Simonton Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature with the encouragement and support of her family. The Award was presented in Irma's name only until 1992, when James Black's name was added in recognition of his ardent support of the Award.