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About The Author |
How I Started Writing
I began making up stories before I could write. I would tell a story to my baby sitter and she would type it out. When I got to elementary school I began writing poetry. In high school I edited the school paper. I never stopped writing. I think all the books I read when I was young had a lot to do with my writing.

Where I Live
For over thirty years my husband and I lived in the woods of northern
Michigan in a cabin on a small lake, Oxbow Lake. Our children and grandchildren
often visited. The nearest house was a mile away and I had to walk half a mile
to get the mail. In the winter the lake was a big white circle and the snow
piled up from the ground and hung down from the roof until you could hardly see
out the windows. Sometimes a coyote trotted out on to the lake and lay on the
ice, its muzzle between its paws, lazing in the sun. In the summer we saw fox
walking around the lake and deer drinking at the lake. The eagle and the osprey
fished the lake and the blue heron stalked the lake’s edge. The things I saw as
I walked in the woods or looked out of my study window often found their way
into my books. There are herons and eagles in my book about India and Africa and
China, only their plumage is a little different.



What My Day is Like
After breakfast, I’m at my computer or writing in my secret garden. I
usually work until noon when its time to explore the frig. After lunch I’m out
walking along Lake St. Clair. That’s when I solve any problems that have come up
that day in my writing. I’m also thinking about what I’ll be writing next.
Getting a story down for the first time is the hardest part because you have to
make up everything: the weather, the people, their clothes and the food they
eat. Revision is my favorite part. It’s when you get to make the story more and
more like the story as you imagined it. When I’m not writing or walking, I’m
cooking or reading, mostly reading. I read a lot and when I put a book down, I
feel the author has become my friend. I hope my readers feel the same way about
me.
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AWARDS FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS
2000
National Book Award, Michigan Author of the Year Award; ALA Notable
Children's Book, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Great Lakes Booksellers
Award ; Society of Midland Authors Juvenile Fiction Award; Nomination
for an Edgar, Mystery Writers of America; Friends of American Writers
Award; IRA Children's Choices List, IRA Teachers' Choices List; Notable
Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies; Best Books of
the Year Bank Street College; Los Angeles' 100 Best Books; Distinguished
Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America.
Master List Finalist for the following: Florida Sunshine State Young
Reader's Award, Texas Lone Star Reading List, Pacific Northwest Library
Association Award, South Carolina Book Award, Virginia's Young Reader's
Program, Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award, Evergreen Sequoyah
Young Adult Book Award, William Allen White Award, Nutmeg Children's
Book Award, Minnesota Youth Reading Award, New Jersey's Garden State
Award, Utah's Children's Book Award, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Master
List; Georgia Children's Book Award; California Reading Initiative;
Iowa School choices; Mark Twain Award, Young Hoosier Master List. National
Outdoor Book Award.
BOOK CLUBS
Doubleday
Book Club, Scholastic Book Club, Troll Book Club, Junior Library Guild
FOREIGN RIGHTS
Norway, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, UK., France, Italy, China, Thailand, Iraq