Spring 2002 Flying Starts: Heather Henson

By her own admission, Heather Henson backed into the world of children's books. She never meant to start a career editing them, and she certainly never meant to write one. But somehow, at the age of 35, she has ended up doing both.

PW Talks with Katharine Holabird

Back in 1983, Angelina Mouseling, a feisty young ballet enthusiast, pirouetted into the children's book world as the heroine of Angelina Ballerina, a picture book by Katharine Holabird, illustrated by Helen Craig. Holabird, an American-born mother and former nursery school teacher living in England, and British artist Craig became a fine-tuned team, creating a series of nine Angelina adventures.

PW Talks with Daniel Handler

Daniel Handler, as the official representative of Lemony Snicket (author of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books) in all legal, literary and social matters, often appears in place of Snicket at author appearances.

PW Talks with Caroline Kennedy

PW: Your new book, Profiles in Courage for Our Time, offers portraits of recipients of the Profiles in Courage Award. What led your family to create an award based on the kind of moral and political courage your father discussed in his book?

PW Talks with James Cross Giblin

Giblin, author of more than 20 books for young readers, was publisher of Clarion Books until taking early retirement in 1989 (he continues to edit a few of his long-time authors). His newest work is The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler.

PW Talks with Coleen Salley

Salley, storyteller and professor emerita of children's literature at the University of New Orleans, has written her first book, a retelling of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, set on the banks of the Mississippi.

PW Talks with Raffi

Raffi, one of the most successful artists in the children's recording world and recognized as a tireless children's advocate, recently celebrated 25 years in the children's music industry.

PW Talks with Allen Say

Say, the Caldecott-winning creator of Grandfather's Journey, was born in Japan in 1937 and moved with his family to the United States in 1953. In July 2000, when his own work was honored with an exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, he had an opportunity to view the museum's exhibition on the WWII internment camps in the U.

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Alex Sanchez

Though Alex Sanchez wrote a picture book while in college, he says he didn't have an audience in mind when he started writing Rainbow Boys (S&S), his novel about three gay teens who deal with everything from coming out to parents to an AIDS scare and even hate crimes.

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Heather Solomon

Webster defines the word clever as "marked by wit and ingenuity," a description many would agree befits debut artist Heather Solomon's artwork in the picture book Clever Beatrice by Margaret Willey (Atheneum). "I use a bit of everything," Solomon says of the technique she used to create the uniquely vibrant and intricate scenes for Willey's spunky tall tale. "I'm primarily a watercolorist, because I initially learned to paint in watercolor," she explains. "But I use other media [collage, acrylics, oils] to make up for what watercolor lacks: bright colors and texture."

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Cathryn Clinton

"God and faith tend to be taboo subjects for YA fiction," says Cathryn Clinton, whose debut novel, The Calling (Candlewick), introduces a heroine who is not only a firm believer in God but has a calling: Esta Lea, a 12-year-old Southerner, comes from a long line of preachers and discovers that she herself can use faith to heal others. The novel has been praised for its rich, Southern-style storytelling, its supportive but non-preachy approach to religion and its humor. Fans impressed by Clinton's imagination might be startled to hear her say that most of the episodes in the novel, from the miraculous restoration of a blind girl's vision to an offbeat funeral scene, are true or composites of real events.

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Annie Callan

How exactly does a girl from Dublin end up writing a western?

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Harry Bliss

Harry Bliss, illustrator of Sharon Creech's A Fine, Fine School (HarperCollins/Cotler) has a knack for pictorial storytelling that can be traced to a love of comics and a family fond of visual art. "I knew who Ben Shahn was by fifth grade," he says, not kidding. "We had to be able to tell the difference between a Picasso and a Braque. I might still have some trouble with that."

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Ann Brashares

For anyone who hasn't been perusing bestseller lists this fall, or hasn't visited a bookstore and seen an eye-catching pair of faded blue jeans on a book jacket, hearing someone mention "that pants book" might engender only confusion. But the many thousands of teenagers who have discovered the book and are passing it around to their friends would know instantly what you were referring to: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, written by Ann Brashares (Delacorte).

Fred Marcellino Remembered

Fiends and colleagues pay tribute to the esteemed book-jacket designer and picture-book illustrator.

PW Talks with Patricia McKissack

PW: The events in your new picture book, Goin' Someplace Special, are taken from your childhood in Nashville during the racially segregated '50s. What prompted you to revisit this particular time in your life?

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: Susanna Vance

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: An Na

PW Talks with Chris Crutcher

PW: From your very first novel, Running Loose (Greenwillow, 1983), you have dealt with adolescent outsiders. What first attracted you to the kind of fringe characters who emerge as heroes in Whale Talk and in so many of your novels?