Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
I was asked (at a time when I was incredibly busy) by National Geographic too do a book of amazing (often heroic) animal stories. I said only if I could write it with my children, all of whom were well-published writers. They agreed. I made a list of fascinating animal stories, from the dog (& team)
Those dinos, they keep on going. And this one began because the editor asked for it. I made a dozen wrong tries until I got it right. She and I made lists of possible scenarios. And only then did I manage to get it right. Mark Teague’s pictures do indeed steal the show, and it seems nothing is going to
I saw a photograph of a stone angel carving on an apartment building in Paris. The angel had originally been meant for a competition for a lighthouse but hadn’t won. Years later it was used for the building. You can still see it in Paris. That photo was the seed that started the story. I wrote th
This How Do Dinos book was the editor’s idea, but I took to it with gusto–as did illustrator Mark Teague. How many times have those of us with children (or who are next door to neighbors’ children) seen toddlers through five-year-olds have massive meltdowns? All of us! And who could
Yes, they are back. I gave the editor a whole raft of choices—eating monsters, monsters taking a bath, going to camp, and she said. “What about sports?” I wrote it and wanted to call it “Warty Monsters, Sporty Monsters,” but cooler heads (the editor’s) prevailed
Over a period of seven years, I wrote a sonnet a year about the life of my favorite poet (and neighbor!) Emily Dickinson. Not looking to get them published, not at first. Just writing them. They certainly didn’t seem to me to be something either an adult poetry publisher would want or something
The then head of Simon & Schuster’s children’s book trade department, and my old friend, Rubin Pfeffer came to my house to visit with me and my very ill husband, David. The three of us told stories, laughed, lifted the spirits of everyone in the room.
How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah and How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas were featured in USA Today on Thursday, November 29 in a holiday round-up:
How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah and How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas were featured in USA Today on Thursday, November 29 in a holiday round-up:
After doing the monster books, and the How Do Dinosaur books, I decided to try the same kind of simply rhymes with humor on dragons. This one is the first of what I hope will be a series. I adore Anderson’s cheery pictures.