Another complicated book history. I wrote this book about thirty years ago (the first time) when my own children were small and playing a game they called “Soft House” by taking cushions off the sofa and building a house with blankets for a roof.
The Perfect Wizard
I have been a long-time fan of Hans Christian Andersen’s work. My favorites include “The Snow Queen,” “The Nightingale” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Occasionally I am called “America’s Hans Christian Andersen,” to which I sometimes respond,
Fine Feathered Friends
After having done WILD WINGS with Jason’s bird photographs–which won a National Wild Life Book award–I realized that he still had many gorgeous bird photos left over. Not only that, each time I went to South Carolina to visit (his baby twins, not Jason and his
How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten?
My editor thought that two very young board books about the Yolen/Teague dinosaurs might be a great idea. She suggested a counting rhyme for one of them. I came up with the Clean Their Rooms idea
How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?
My editor thought that two very young board books about the Yolen/Teague dinosaurs might be a great idea. She suggested a counting rhyme for one of them. I came up with the Clean Their Rooms
How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends?
The Dinosaur books keep on rolling along. This was one of two board books I wrote at the same time, and Mark did a wonderfully compressed version of the bouncy, adorable dinos for it. In record time, I might add. The book was ready long before the contract!
Sea King, The
After Shulamith Oppenheim and I handed in the manuscript for the adult folklore collection, THE FISH PRINCE & OTHER MERMEN STORIES, the editor called us up. He thought that there was actually a wonderful picture book that could come out of the collection, and he had
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
The first dinosaur book did so well (that’s putting it mildly!) my editor asked if I thought I could come up with a sequel. Could I? You bet. About that time, various grandchildren had the sniffles, the snuffles, and the all-around gollywoogles, so a book about dinosaurs in
My Brother’s Flying Machine
With the upcoming Wright Brothers anniversary, every publisher in the world was planning a book about them. One of my editors (a favorite) called and asked me to do a picture book about the dynamic duo. I said, “Not unless I can find a new way into the story.”
Hoptoad
HOPTOAD is one of the shortest picture books (if not the shortest) I have ever written.But the pictures by Karen Schmidt give it a longer story. The piece began as a silly rhyme which I thought might be a board book, but my editor had broader (wider?) thoughts and so it became a picture book.