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
Take Joy
TAKE JOY is filled with 40 years of my insights, rants, jokes, and pleasure in the writing trade. Some of the essays began as speeches, some as articles, some as journal entries, some as moments of inspiration. I hope all of them help writers–old, new, and in-between.
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
Least Things
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
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
Mightier Than the Sword
So many people wrote to me asking that I write a book for boys to pair with my collection Not One Damsel in Distress: Folk Tales for Strong Young Women, that I decided to try it.
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.”
Sword of the Rightful King
I worked on this book for years. Beginning with a short story called, The Sword and the Stone, published in my collection MERLIN’S BOOKE, I noodled away at it (that’s a technical term!) a little bit each year. Finally I sent five chapters to my editor and