Frequently Asked Questions:
What did you most like to do when were a child?
I grew up in a very small town in the 50’s and 60s, the middle child with two sisters. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, and our cousins lived two houses away. No one had afterschool activities, so we played outdoors year-round. Summers were the best. We hiked, biked, berry-picked in the woods, built dams in the creek (crick), and walked to the library or downtown for comic books and ice cream. A lot of our time was spent playing make-believe, especially school, church, nuns, restaurant, hide n seek . . . I remember one summer, I put a bunch of our pets in boxes on display in the back yard, (we had a lot of cats, one dog, and a bunch of Mallard ducks (Henrietta, Herman, Henry, Harriet, Hazel, Huey, Hermione, etc. ) and I charged admission to my “zoo.” Most of the time, our parents had absolutely no idea what we were doing.
What were your favorite books?
Charlotte’s Web was and still is my all-time favorite. It was the book that taught me what reading was all about—the power of a good story and the joy and wonder of great writing. I loved all books by E.B. White, even my very old copy of Elements of Style, that I’ve had since college (and which I probably never used). I also love the illustrations by Garth Williams. I remember my sister handing me Charlotte’s Web, and I took it, rolling my eyes, thinking “whatever,” even though “whatever” wasn’t a term back then. After a few pages, I was AMAZED and hooked for life on the book itself and reading in general.
Did you like to write when you were growing up?
I don’t recall writing a lot. We always had lots of arts supplies and we loved drawing, and we would write in each other’s autograph books. My uncle was a 5th grade teacher and I remember writing and illustrating funny stories featuring him and his students who were always getting into trouble for doing bad stuff I wouldn’t dream of doing. My comic books were a big hit with his class. I also recall one high school assignment. I was supposed to get “detention” for not having my gym clothes. But the teacher said, in place of staying after school, I could write a paper describing a model PE program. So I wrote an illustrated a “book” of exercises impossible to perform, such as “Raise your left leg. Hold it, now raise your right leg. Hold both legs in this position for a count of 10.” Humor and creativity got me a pass that day, and many a day!
Also, there was a lot of story-telling in my family. (Good writing always starts with a good story.) All of my grandparents emigrated from Poland through Ellis Island circa 1913-14. My mother’s dad lived with us. Everyone in the neighborhood called him “dziadza” (we pronounced it “jah-jee”.) And our other grandparents lived 2 miles away (“Babi” and Grandpap). Our grandfathers worked in the anthracite coal mines of Western Pennsylvania. We grew up listening to lots of stories about “old country”. My Dad was quite the story-teller, too. During World War II, he landed on Omaha Beach, in the first wave, on June 6, 1944. So many, many incredible stories . . .
So how did you begin your publishing career?
The first year I taught in Los Angeles, I took a class through UCLA Extension titled
“Writing for the Educational Market.” From day one as a teacher, I always created my own materials, I thought this class was going to be perfect-- and it was! The teacher, Terry Garnholz, was Senior Editor at Educational Insights. Our final project for the class was to create a teacher resource. I wrote and illustrated a book of reproducible pages that would inspire students to write. A few months after the class, Terry acquired my book and I expanded it into a 3-book series. Terry Garnholz was my first mentor and became a good friend. After that, I got to know other supplementary educational publishers and continued with more projects. At one point when my kids were small, I left teaching and worked for about 6 years, part-time, as an editor for Creative Teaching Press. I wrote my first series of 96 books, Learn to Read as an in-house editor. Special thanks to my two mentors at CTP, Luella Connelly and Sue Lewis. I went free-lance in 1996, and have continued to publish new series and books ever since then, here and abroad.