Posted on Mon, Jun. 15, 2009

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

Imagine a childhood without Brown Bear seeing.

Or Red Bird, Yellow Duck, and Blue Horse looking.

One of the most beloved children's books, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" might not have been written by this Kansan had it not been for his discovery of rhythm and sound.

Throughout much of his childhood into college, Bill Martin Jr. struggled to read more than a few words or sentences at a time.

The native Kansan was born March 20, 1916, and grew up in Hiawatha.

Martin wrote later that he became enthralled by the sounds that words make when put together.

As a student at the Kansas State Teacher's College in Emporia, he studied works of literature looking for rhythmic patterns and common themes.

He was influenced most by the works of Robert Frost and Walt Whitman.

The sounds of language inspired Martin to become a teacher. For the first few years of his career, he taught English, journalism and drama in Newton and St. John.

He also began writing.

He wrote his first book, "The Little Squeegy Bug" while serving in the Army Air Force during World War II.

The book quickly became popular -- selling more than a million books -- and earned favor with Eleanor Roosevelt who praised it in her column, "My Day."

Following the war, Martin earned a doctorate in childhood education from Northwestern University in 1961.

He then moved to New York City, where he became editor in chief of the school division for Holt, Rinehart and Winston. He developed reading programs for school children.

Through the next four decades, Martin wrote more than 300 books.

One of those books was "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." Martin kept a daily notebook and penned the words "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" more than three years before he wrote the book.

He said he simply liked the sounds the words made when said together.

"Even when type on a page didn't make sense to me, I considered myself a reader -- because I loved the sound and the cadence of the language, the power of narrative, and the images words concocted in my mind," Martin wrote.

He died Aug. 11, 2004.

But his books are read to children day after day and night after night.

Children everywhere still learn to see brown bears, and yellow ducks.

Green frogs and purple cats.

Black sheep and goldfish.

And teachers looking at us.

So beloved are his books, they are a favorite among celebrities.

Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow recorded a series of Martin's bear stories, earning her a Grammy-nomination.

And, earlier this year, Michelle Obama read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" to a group of school children in Washington, D.C.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.