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Shirley Temple: Child Stars
Focuses on the acting career of one of America's best known child stars, Shirley Temple.
32 pages, Library Binding
First published May 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
John Bankston
176 books10 followersIt’s no one’s fault that I love the dark.
At six-years old, I enlisted my father’s help in constructing a model skull. Two years later, I talked my mother into buying a life-sized skeleton poster at a novelty shop. I tacked it up during the day. After the sun set, moonlight scattered through my blinds made its bleached bones shimmer and dance.
I was an only child growing up in a remote Vermont cabin. My imagination spun tales of horror, stories that grew in intensity after my babysitter read selections from her dog-eared copy of John Saul’s Suffer the Children. I don’t blame her for my love of the dark either, I was already ten after all and by then a hardcore aficionado of all things that go bump in the night.
By sixth grade I was reading my own scary books, from classics like Dracula and The Fall of the House of Usher to ‘Salem’s Lot and The Shining. By middle school, I was watching horror on screen delighting in the scares delivered by Kubrick’s The Shining and Carpenter’s Halloween.
Today I still love King, his progeny Joe Hill and YA writers like Amy Lukavics and Danielle Vega.
I’ve been getting paid to write for most of my adult life. I’ve written for online publications; I’ve ghostwritten novels and business guides. I’ve even authored over 150 nonfiction books for younger readers. Still, my fiction passion is horror and thrillers with horror elements. That’s why I’m excited to announce the Spring Publication date for The Academy series, a trilogy about happens when a young girl goes missing and her dormmate begins looking into why so many teens have disappeared or been murdered near their elite but isolated Vermont music school. There are also ghosts.
At six-years old, I enlisted my father’s help in constructing a model skull. Two years later, I talked my mother into buying a life-sized skeleton poster at a novelty shop. I tacked it up during the day. After the sun set, moonlight scattered through my blinds made its bleached bones shimmer and dance.
I was an only child growing up in a remote Vermont cabin. My imagination spun tales of horror, stories that grew in intensity after my babysitter read selections from her dog-eared copy of John Saul’s Suffer the Children. I don’t blame her for my love of the dark either, I was already ten after all and by then a hardcore aficionado of all things that go bump in the night.
By sixth grade I was reading my own scary books, from classics like Dracula and The Fall of the House of Usher to ‘Salem’s Lot and The Shining. By middle school, I was watching horror on screen delighting in the scares delivered by Kubrick’s The Shining and Carpenter’s Halloween.
Today I still love King, his progeny Joe Hill and YA writers like Amy Lukavics and Danielle Vega.
I’ve been getting paid to write for most of my adult life. I’ve written for online publications; I’ve ghostwritten novels and business guides. I’ve even authored over 150 nonfiction books for younger readers. Still, my fiction passion is horror and thrillers with horror elements. That’s why I’m excited to announce the Spring Publication date for The Academy series, a trilogy about happens when a young girl goes missing and her dormmate begins looking into why so many teens have disappeared or been murdered near their elite but isolated Vermont music school. There are also ghosts.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 20, 2014
This is nice a short biography about Shirley Temple. I learned more about her and a little bit of what Hollywood was like during the 1930s when Shirley started out. Now I want to learn more about her and her life long legacy in Hollywood.
April 11, 2015
Looking forward to Jenny Riddle in her Bringing Books to Life performance of Shirley Temple Black based on Temple's autobiography at Prairie Path books in Wheaton on Monday, April 13, 2015.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews