Howard Schrager grew up in New Jersey, and received degrees from the University of Wisconsin and from U.C.L.A. He has lived in California for over 40 years, having been been a Waldorf teacher for 30 of these years, and a poet for more than that. As such, he’s always sought the magical in language. He enjoys helping children to learn in imaginative, playful ways. His alphabet book, LMNOP and All the Letters A to Z, moved one master teacher to exclaim, “I’ve seen many alphabets in my 22 years of teaching, but LMNOP takes it to a new level.” Like all of his work, it is not only an engaging piece of children’s literature; it is a gateway into realms of learning. He is very serious about his playfulness, because he is convinced that the imagination is the key to the child’s mind, as well as to reinvigorating American culture.

In his Riddle Rhyme Trilogy, he presents a unique, new word game. A Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork is the first in the trilogy, with Chicken in the Car and Car Can’t Go (on the cities), and Here’s A Little Riddle for the Kids on the Block (on the capitals), soon to follow.

Schrager is in the process of bringing out two picture books, pertaining to math, King Maximo and the Number Knights, on the qualities of numbers, and Multiplicando, a story about a jester who teaches children multiplication. A manual, which includes stories derived from the 26 poems in LMNOP, is also nearly complete.

Schrager has taught every primary grade, 1-8, at least 3 times. He has now left the classroom, to devote his time to writing, publishing, and to mentoring teachers and parents, demonstrating ways of bringing creativity and imagination into teaching, without sacrificing academics. As a teacher in the Waldorf school system, where creativity is the byword, he has practiced this for a long time. He is currently the publisher at LemonTree Press. He is the father of two grown girls, and a grandfather, too.

LemonTree Press is dedicated to producing books which are entertaining and engaging for children, but which, beyond this, provide gateways into areas of traditional academic learning. Our goal is to provide a stimulus toward reinvigorating children’s culture, along imaginative, poetic lines.