James Trelease

A graduate of the University of Massachusetts ('63) and native of New Jersey (Orange, Union and North Plainfield), Jim Trelease was for 20 years an award-winning artist and journalist before turning his career toward education in 1979 when he wrote the first edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook.

While working for a Massachusetts daily newspaper (the Springfield Daily News, now the Springfield Republican) as an artist and writer, he began weekly volunteer visits to community classrooms, talking with children about journalism and art as careers.