Children are my favorite kind of people!
Having six younger siblings. raising a foster daughter, and teaching English to kids in Japan for almost 20 years means I've spent a LOT of time
Having six younger siblings, raising a daughter, and teaching English to kids in Japan for almost twenty years means I've spent a LOT of time hanging out with children. I like the way children are always so curious. They love to play games, they love to laugh, and they love to have fun. I can say for sure they are my favorite kind of people!
Why I started writing books for kids
As a teacher, one of my responsibilities is to teach and encourage my students to read. However it wasn't so easy to find beginner readers with simple sentences that my ESL kids could read and understand, so that was how I got started. My first published book was Counting Book of Bugs, designed to teach counting from 1 to 13. I also used a hand-made version of An Angel For the Christmas Tree in my classroom for many years before I actually got around to publishing it. When I wrote My Amazing Brain I was trying to use the prepositions 'in' and 'on' in creative ways.
Why did I write so many bug books?
Many boys and quite a few girls are interested in bugs. I realize that most mothers don't find them so appealing, but I believe strongly that a love of nature. and an interest in all its aspects - including insects - is something we should encourage in children. So that's why I decided to count bugs, and why I began the Take a Closer Look series.