This anthology of twelve stories of science fictional and fantasy beasts, includes two original stories (by Dale Ferguson Cope and Richard Curtis) and ten reprints by such luminaries as Theodore Sturgeon, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, James Thurber, Andre Norton, and Philip Jose Farmer. I contributed only the introduction.
Writing Books for Children
See “Guide to Writing for Children.”
Friend: The Story of George Fox and the Quakers
A biography–warts and all–of the charismatic founder of the Society of Friends aka the Quakers. George Fox was a man who believed that God was within every human being, and such was his conviction, he managed to offend a good portion of the English clergy and the powers that be. He was
Girl Who Loved the Wind, The
An original fairy tale, this story is about a girl whose overprotective father tries to keep her from all things wicked, unhappy, trying, or real. At last the wind blows in over the garden wall and woos her, taking her into the ever-changing world. A fifth grader at the Smith College Campus School pointed
Fireside Song Book of Birds and Beasts, The
This mammoth collection was my first song book. Babbie Green is a good friend and professional musician. (Her father, Johnny Green was a Hollywood composer and arranger.) We had a ball working on this. I picked all the songs, found the written music or sung it into a tape recorder and
Bird of Time, The
This is a straight-forward original fairy tale in which a miller’s son, who has the gift of understanding the speech of animals, finds a bird that can speed time up or slow time down or stop time altogether. With the bird’s help, he rescues a princess from a wicked giant. Interestingly, I began writing the
Seventh Mandarin, The
An original fairy tale set in Thailand and based on a line in my kite research which said that the king had kite mandarins who flew his kite at night to keep his soul above the terrors of the night. The story, written during my Quaker phase, is about speaking truth to power no matter what the cost.
Hobo Toad and the Motorcycle Gang
A bouncing adventure with a rhyming trucker, a hitchhiking toad, a motorcycle gang, and a young hero. The book began when there was a toad migration and friends had an uncomfortable time driving along the road squishing toads. They made up a song which I used with their permission.
Wizard of Washington Square, The
A boy, a girl, a dog, an inept wizard, a nasty antiques dealer, a walking table, and a great white alligator. I set this in New York City’s Greenwich Village where my husband and I met and we lived for the first years of our marriage. It is a complete romp.
Inway Investigators, The
My first real mystery for kids, based on the little town–Conway, Massachusetts–where we then lived. There had been a rash of pet thefts and this was my take on it. Allan Eitzen who did the cover and some interior illustrations would later illustrate my poetry anthology