author
Sarah J. Burke
A late-19th-century writer for young readers, she is known today for lively, imaginative books that mixed storytelling with lessons about animals and the wider world.
1 Audiobook
P. T. Barnum's Menagerie
by P. T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum, Sarah J. Burke
About the author
Sarah J. Burke was an author of children's books whose surviving work points to a strong interest in entertaining and teaching young readers at the same time. Public-domain library records credit her with titles including Fairy Tales for Little Readers and Burke's Tales for Little Readers.
She is also credited as co-author of P. T. Barnum's Menagerie, first published in 1888. In that book, the text is presented as being arranged for children by P. T. Barnum and Sarah J. Burke, blending animal facts, adventure, and moral lessons in a style typical of children's publishing of the period.
Very little biographical information about her appears to be readily documented in the sources I could confirm, so her life remains somewhat obscure. Even so, the books linked to her name suggest a writer who helped shape an accessible, curious, and educational style of reading for children in the late 1800s and early 1900s.