What am I up to?

I’m traveling all over the country talking to kids about SOAR, ELINOR! and following their dreams.

I’m also writing my next “dangerous”
book. What’s it about?
You’ll have to wait and see.

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When I was a kid, we lived on a farm in Prospect, Kentucky. My sister and I rode horses every single day. We had lots of dogs and cats, and a duck named Sweet Feed.

Everyone in my family was an airplane pilot and soon I learned to fly, too.

Did I always know I wanted to be a writer? No way!

I’d never even met someone who wrote books.

But I LOVED TO READ!

What did I read? Everything from picture books like Go Dog, Go! and Jenny and The Cat Club to grown-up books like The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Some of my favorites were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg and The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

My mom dropped me and my sister off at the library almost every week and I checked out as many books as I could carry. Like Elinor Smith’s parents (see my picture book biography, Soar, Elinor!) my mom knew children have to be allowed to dream and I found lots of dreams in books. Even books that some people might say aren’t “appropriate” for kids. Great librarians pointed out books I might have never picked on my own and I learned there was a bigger world outside the library, with all sorts of people and choices. Some folks might say that’s dangerous. I say it’s great!

Click on the Media Kit tab to learn more about me.