Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
LEAST THINGS began when I read the quote, “Nature excels in her least things.” I told my photographer son Jason and he began taking photos of nature’s smallest things–jingle shells, tiny crabs, butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, etc. Slowly he gathered his photographs
The editor at Owens, a small educational publisher, asked me if I’d like to write a picture book autobiography for a newly created line of photo books. I said only if my son Jason, a professional photographer, could do the photos. She agreed readily, loved his work, and so Jason’s first book was published.
I had lived in the Connecticut River Valley for a number of years, and had known (and visited) that lovely created wilderness, the Quabbin Reservoir. But I hadn’t known the human story behind it until the local newspaper did an article. It seems that in the late ’30s, the people of the Swift River Valley towns had sold
I had written this Little Frog book a couple of years ago, it had gotten some nice rejections, but then sold a picture book to Brian Sockin for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s new children’s line. Turns out Brian (fastest editor/publisher in the East) also had a line of non-bird books called Persnickety
The second book about Little Frog (of four, one for each season) with pictures by the new but very professional and suddenly sought-after illustrator, Ellen Shi. (The first frog book was her first published book! And I found her!) In this one Little Frog is a reluctant big sister until danger threatens her baby brothers, and…
A small picture book retelling of a Turkish story. Segal’s quirky illustrations are perfect. Published as a pair with The Musicians of Bremen.
An original fairy tale about a fisherlad who meets a magical talking fish and rescues her, done with his own skills and not magic. I love the story, but the pictures puzzle me. It is clearly a Celtic story–all the clues are there: a green island, a coracle (a skin boat) and references to Irish poets and Scottish folk
A very New York City book fueled by our recent European trip and the Prince spaghetti commercials of the day in which a young Italian boy is summoned home by his mother’s shouting. This book is about a boy whose name is so long it’s a botheration.
After my picture book on Hans Christian Andersen came out (The Perfect Wizard), editor Steve Meltzer and I cast about for a follow-up. I suggested J. M. Barrie, Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, Beatrix Potter, Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott. As you can see, we settled on Barrie. I collected about
I call this my sequel to OWL MOON, only forty years later! Probably I am the only one who sees the connection. I think the pictures are stunning in their own way. I hope John Schoneherr, who won the Caldecott for OWL MOON, is looking down from heaven with approval.