Our Favorite Authors
Beverly ClearyBeverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon, and lived on a farm in Yamhill, a town so small it had no library. Her mother arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and acted as librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank. There, Beverly learned to love books. (Link to more about Beverly Cleary.)
Andrew ClementsI didn't wake up one morning when I was in fourth or fifth grade and say, “I know, I know! I'm going to be a writer!” That never happened to me. I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stories and mystery books, and I have wonderful memories of my mom reading picture books aloud to me. I learned that words are powerful. (Link to more on Andrew Clements.)
Suzanne CollinsBestselling author Suzanne Collins first made her mark in children’s literature with the New York Timesbestselling Underland Chronicles series for middle grade readers. Her debut for readers aged 12 and up, The Hunger Games (September 2008), immediately became a New York Times bestseller, appealing to both teen readers and adults. It was called “addictive” by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, and “amazing” by Stephenie Meyer on her website, and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2008 and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. (Link to more about Suzanne Collins.)
Christopher Paul CurtisChristopher Paul Curtis was born and reared in Flint, Michigan. After high school graduation, he worked on the assembly line of the Fisher Body Plant/Flint Plant No. 1 and graduated from the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. His first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor book citation in 1996, and Bud, Not Buddy received the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award in 2000. (Link to more on Christopher Paul Curtis.)
Roald DahlRoald Dahl was one of the greatest story-tellers of all time. He was born in Llanduff, South Wales, of Norwegian parents, in 1916, and educated in English boarding-schools. Then, in search of adventure, the young Dahl took a job with Shell Oil in Africa. When World War II broke out he joined the RAF as a fighter pilot, receiving terrible injuries and almost dying in a plane crash in 1942. (Link to more about Roald Dahl.)
Kate DiCamilloWriting my own stories had always been one of my dreams, but I didn't start until I was 29. I was working in a book warehouse and was assigned to the third floor where all the children's books were. For four and a half years, I spent all day, every day around children's books and it wasn't long before I fell in love with them. (Link to more about Kate DiCamillo.)
Jeff Kinney
Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990's. It was there that Jeff ran a comic strip called "Igdoof" in the campus newsletter, and he knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. (Link to more about him.)
Lois LowryI was a solitary child, born the middle of three, who lived in the world of books and my own imagination. There are some children, and I was this kind of child, who are introverts and love to read — who prefer to curl up with a book than to hang out with friends or play at the ball field. Children like that begin to develop a feeling for language and for story. And that was true for me — that's how I became a writer. (Link to more about Lois Lowry.)
Megan McDonaldAs the youngest of five sisters, Megan McDonald could hardly get in a word edgewise at the dinner table. As a result, she began to stutter sometime during elementary school. That's when Megan's mother bought her a notebook so that she could at least get her words onto paper. Little did Megan's older sisters know, this quiet observer would one day become a famous author whose words would be translated into multiple languages. Moreover, many of the anecdotes that appear in the Judy Moody books are actually based on real incidents — like the time Megan scared one her sisters by hiding a fake hand in the toilet. (Link to more about Megan McDonald.)
Walter Dean MyersWalter began writing at an early age. "I was a good student, but a speech impediment was causing problems. One of my teachers decided that I couldn't pronounce certain words at all. She thought that if I wrote something, I would use words I could pronounce. I began writing little poems. I began to write short stories, too." Realizing that his family would not be able to afford college, Walter joined the Army on his seventeenth birthday. When he got out, he worked various jobs and he wrote at night. "I wrote for magazines," says Walter. "I wrote adventure stuff, I wrote for the National Enquirer, I wrote advertising copy for cemeteries." A winning contest entry with the Council on Interracial Books for Children became his first book, Where Does the Day Go? (Link to more on Walter Dean Myers.)
Mary Pope Osborne
_I grew up in the military. By the time I was fifteen I had lived in
Oklahoma, Austria, Florida, and four different army posts in Virginia
and North Carolina. Moving was never traumatic for me, partly, I think,
because I had very close and loving relationships with my parents, my
twin brother, my younger brother, and my older sister. (Link to more about her.)
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Gary Paulsen
_Born May 17, 1939, Gary Paulsen is one of America's most popular writers
for young people. Although he was never a dedicated student, Paulsen developed
a passion for reading at an early age. After a librarian gave him a book
to read — along with his own library card — he was hooked. He
began spending hours alone in the basement of his apartment building,
reading one book after another. (Link to more about him.)
Jack PrelutskyI have always enjoyed playing with words, but I had no idea that I would be a writer. There was a time when I couldn't stand poetry! In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn't convinced. (Link to more on Jack Prelutsky.)
Rick RiordanRick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling
author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. (Link to more about Rick Riordan.) J K RowlingJ K (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling was born in the summer of 1965 at Yate General Hospital in England and grew up in Chepstow, Gwent where she went to Wyedean Comprehensive.
Jo left Chepstow for Exeter University, where she earned a French and Classics degree, and where her course included one year in Paris. As a postgraduate she moved to London to work at Amnesty International, doing research into human rights abuses in Francophone Africa. She started writing the Harry Potter series during a Manchester to London King's Cross train journey, and during the next five years, outlined the plots for each book and began writing the first novel. (Link to more about J K Rowling.) Jon ScieszkaBorn in Flint, Mich., Jon Scieszka earned a bachelor’s degree in writing from Albion College and a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University. He held a number of teaching positions in the first through eighth grades before taking a year off to develop ideas for children’s books. He is the author of several bestselling children’s titles, including The Stinky Cheese Man, which won a Caldecott Honor medal, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series. Scieszka is the founder of Guys Read, a nonprofit literacy organization. (Link to more about Jon Scieszka.)
Dr. SeussDr. Seuss's first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, hit the market in 1937, and the world of children's literature was changed forever! In 1957, Seuss's The Cat in the Hat became the prototype for one of Random House's best-selling series, Beginner Books. This popular series combined engaging stories with outrageous illustrations and playful sounds to teach basic reading skills. (Link to more on Dr. Seuss.)
William ShakespeareWilliam was born in 1564. We know this from the earliest record we have of his life; his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564. We don’t actually know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similarly by knowing the famous Bard's baptism date, we can guess that he was born three days earlier on St. George’s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this. (Link to more on William Shakespeare.)
J. R. R. Tolkien(born January 3, 1892, Bloemfontein, South Africa—died September 2, 1973, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England) English writer and scholar who achieved fame with his children's book The Hobbit (1937) and his richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).
At age four Tolkien, with his mother and younger brother, settled near Birmingham, England, after his father, a bank manager, died in South Africa. In 1900 his mother converted to Roman Catholicism, a faith her elder son also practiced devoutly. On her death in 1904, her boys became wards of a Catholic priest. (Link to more on J. R. R Tolkien.) Chris Van AllsburgMy early love for drawing developed into a love for telling stories through pictures. Stories begin as fragments of pictures in my mind. I create a story by posing questions to myself. I call it the “what if” and “what then” approach. For example, for my book Jumanji, I started out by thinking “What if two bored children discovered a board game? What if the board game came to life? What then?” The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, “What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?” (Link to more on Chris Van Allsburg.)
E. B. WhiteDuring his lifetime, many young readers asked Mr. White if his stories were true. In a letter written to be sent to his fans, he answered, “No, they are imaginary tales… But real life is only one kind of life — there is also the life of the imagination.” (Link to more about E. B. White.)
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