David Harrison's first book for children (The Boy with a Drum), was released in 1969 and sold over two million copies. The first of his long list of awards came in 1972 when he received the Christopher Award for The Book of Giant Stories. Since then David has published ninety original titles that have sold millions of copies.

His work has been anthologized in more than one hundred eighty-five books, appeared in dozens of magazines, professional journals, and interviews in print and online, translated into twelve languages, and presented on television, radio, cassette, and CD-ROM.

David's poetry inspired Sandy Asher's school play, Somebody Catch My Homework!, which is produced in the United States and abroad, and Jesse and Grace, a Best Friends Story, another Harrison-Asher collaboration, which is a fourth-grade best friend's play in poetry that has been praised for its honesty of characters and use of art and music and received the Distinguished Play Award from American Alliance for Theatre and Education.

David's SKY HIGH ON READING program was the International Reading Association's nationwide winner in 2001. The Missouri Librarian Association presented him with its 2007 Literacy Award for the body of his work. His professional books include:

• Easy Poetry Lessons That Dazzle and Delight, with Bernice Cullinan; 1999(Scholastic);


• Using the Power of Poetry to Teach Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and More, with Kathy Holderith; 2003 (Scholastic);


• "Yes, Poetry Can," the poetry chapter for Children's Literature in the Reading Program (3rd Edition, edited by Deborah Wooten and Bernice Cullinan; 2009, IRA);


• Partner Poems for Building Fluency: 40 Engaging Poems for Two Voices With Motivating Activities That Help Students Improve Their Fluency and Comprehension, with Tim Rasinski and Gay Fawcett, (Scholastic,2009);


• "Poetry, the Write Thing to Do," the poetry chapter for Children's Literature in the Reading Program (4th Edition, edited by Deborah Wooten and Bernice Cullinan; 2015 (IRA);


• Learning through Poetry (in five volumes), with Mary Jo Fresch; 2013 (Shell Education Publishing);


• Rhymes for the Times: Literacy Strategies through Social Studies, with Tim Rasinski, 2016, (Shell).
  
  

David has given keynote talks and presentations at more than 300 national, regional, state, and local conferences across the country plus innumerable school visits and parent nights. He holds science degrees from Drury and Emory universities and honorary doctorate of letters degrees from Missouri State University and Drury University. David Harrison Elementary school is named for him and he is poet laureate of Drury. He lives in Springfield, Missouri with his wife Sandy, a former high school guidance counselor. They own Gamble's Gifts.

ARA Interview with David

Click Picture to Read Poem Age 6 and Grownup








James C. Kirkpatrick Library
Houses David L. Harrison Collection
handwritten notes, galleys, manuscripts, etc.
View David's Appearance Schedule