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History

In My Own Words...

From the time I could hold a pencil, I loved to draw. My mother was a single parent who worked full time, and my brothers were much older than I was. It seemed like I spent a lot of time alone. Drawing and, later, writing kept me company.

I became good friends with a girl named Roberta who lived downstairs. Her mother was an artist. I went with them to sketch in the park, and we visited museums. I knew I wanted to be an artist.

In the sixth grade I read The Diary of Anne Frank and decided to keep a journal. I keep one to this day. In the seventh grade I started writing short stories. I had a wonderful English teacher, Miss Rothenberg, who encouraged me to write. My first published story appeared in the junior high school literary magazine.

While I dreamed of going to art school, my mother steered me to a liberal arts college, Mount Holyoke. Being a studio art major there was a bit outside the mainstream and, later, a Mount Holyoke degree didn’t open doors when I began searching for work as an illustrator. But I did get a tremendous education, which serves me well every day of my life.

My early illustration jobs were for magazines, most notably, The New Yorker. I got my initial book-illustrating job (a cookbook) when I was pregnant with my first child. Other books followed and so did two more children. It was only after my third baby was born that an illustrator friend arranged for me to meet Susan Hirschman at Greenwillow. My friend had to push me to make the appointment because I was so consumed with motherhood (and so tired!). The Line Up Book was my first picture book. My son Sam inspired me. At the time he was obsessed with lining up objects all over our house.

The stories I write usually begin that way. My children say or do something that sticks in my mind. Or I remember something from my own childhood. I mull it over and over and expand it into a story. The initial idea is usually the easy part, but giving it shape, rhythm, and a satisfying ending is much more difficult. Painting the pictures is the most fun of all.

There is no other job I would want. Every day when I sit down to work in my studio—which is a bedroom in my house—I feel very lucky and very happy.

In The News!
My New Book
- April 2005 -

Welcome to my brand new, first ever website! You can find out about my books, my illustrations, my awards, my school visits, and a whole lot more.