Caroline Arnold is amazing. Author, illustrator and teacher, she has published over 100 books for kids.
Her new picture book, Wiggle and Waggle, Caroline and illustrator Mary Peterson, teamed up to do a bit on UTUBE. Check it out by Googling Wiggle and Waggle and it will come up. Another promotion tool we all should learn.
I was lucky enough to get Caroline Arnold to answer a few questions.
When and why did you start writing for children?
Books were always a part of my life but even though I loved to read I never imagined that I would be writer when I grew up. I studied art at Grinnell College and the University of Iowa and planned to be an artist and art teacher.
I also studied science
and literature. After I got married and had my own children I read
stories to them. I realized that perhaps I could use my training in
art to be a children’s book illustrator. I started to write stories so
that I could illustrate them and soon discovered that I enjoyed writing
very much. After illustrating three books I stopped drawing and I’ve
been writing ever since. (Recently I resumed doing some art for my
books.) The majority of my published works for children are nonfiction and it seems that this kind of writing has always been my destiny. My mother recently unearthed some of my childhood writing and I was amazed to discover that all of them are informational pieces. One story describes how to make maple syrup. As a young child I was fascinated by pioneer life and tried to imagine what it would be like to live in a sod house or to ride in a covered wagon. I still find it exciting to learn how people lived in other times and places and have written a several books about ancient cultures. Another childhood essay, which I wrote when I was in first grade, is about a train ride our family took from Minneapolis, where we lived, to St. Paul on the other side of the Mississippi River. According to my account this exciting journey cost us fourteen cents each and, I wrote, “When you push a button the seat will go back.”
What is the most valuable advice you can give to a newly published writer?
No one is more interested in the success of your book than you are. Whatever you can do to let people know about your book will help promote it and get people to read it. These include doing school and library visits, making appearances at local bookstores, writing blogs on the web, talking to friends and family and whatever else you can think of. The best thing about promoting your book in person is that it puts you in touch with your audience so that you can find out directly what they like best about your book.
What is one of your favorite children’s books that you'd like to recommend?
One of my all time favorite books in Ghost Wings by Barbara Joosse, a picture book that combines a young girl's relationship with her grandmother, the migration of monarch butterflies to the mountains of Mexico, and the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, told in beautiful, lyrical prose. The back matter includes four pages of factual information and activities. The book is an excellent example of a combination of fiction and nonfiction, where each enhances the other.
What is your favorite dessert and why?
I like practically any dessert that includes fruit and one of my favorites is a recipe of my grandmother's called Apple Maccaroon. Basically, it is a rich egg cake on top of a layer of cooked apples. As a child, we always ate it warm in bowls with milk poured over the top. Now, I generally serve it on a plate and top it with whipped cream. I also sometimes make it with peaches.
Caroline Arnold has been writing for children since 1980 and is the author of more than 100 books. Recent nonfiction titles include Taj Mahal (Carolrhoda) (co-authored with Madeleine Comora), A Panda’s World, (Picture Window Books), one of a series of four books illustrated with her own cut paper art, Australian Animals, and Easter Island. Her recent fiction books include Wiggle and Waggle (Charlesbridge) and The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, (Boyds Mills), a tall tale which won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Her books have received awards from the American Library Association, the National Science Teachers Association, P.E.N., and SCBWI. Recently she received the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award for her body of work. Caroline’s interest in animals and the out-of-doors began when she was a child growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After majoring in art and literature at Grinnell College in Iowa, she received her M.A. in art from the University of Iowa. Caroline lives in Los Angeles and teaches part-time in the Writer’s Program at UCLA Extension.
Utube? Really! What a great way to showcase your work and make it fun and accessible at the same time.
Yuki
Posted by: Yuki Yoshino | July 02, 2007 at 06:10 PM