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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Avi
Avi was born in New York City in 1937. He grew up in a family of readers, writers, and artists. His twin sister, who gave him the nickname "Avi" at an early age, also became a writer.
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Joan Bauer
Joan Bauer was born in 1951 in River Forest, Illinois. The eldest of three sisters, Joan grew up writing stories, poems, and entries in her diary. Joan's mother was a high school English teacher and her grandmother, who lived at home,...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Gennifer Choldenko
Gennifer grew up in Southern California surrounded by older siblings and cousins who called her names like "Shrimp," "Short Stuff," and "Snot-nose," so maybe it's not surprising that several of her books feature strong sibling...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Christopher Paul Curtis
Christopher Paul Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan in 1953. Growing up in an all-black neighborhood, the only white people he ever saw were the teachers at his school. From kindergarten through eighth grade, Curtis was a straight-A...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Candace Fleming
In second grade, Fleming discovered a passion for language. She can still remember the day her teacher, Miss Johnson, held up a horn-shaped basket filled with papier-mache pumpkins and asked the class to repeat the word "cornucopia." She...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. His parents moved so often that he attended 10 different schools between kindergarten and 12th grade. The Gantos family rented a variety of homes in Pennsylvania, Florida, North...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With John Green
John Green, author and a semi-professional videoblogger, lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife, Sarah and his dog Willy. He was born in Indianapolis in 1977, grew up in Florida and then moved to Alabama where he attended Indian...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Emma Walton Hamilton
A former actress, Emma Walton Hamilton worked in theater, film, and television for 10 years before turning her attention to directing, producing, educating and writing. She is one of the founders of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Deborah Heiligman
Heiligman was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and lived in the same house her entire childhood. One of her favorite school memories is of her fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Ryan, who created magical reading nooks for her students - like an...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Deborah Hopkinson
Deborah Hopkinson was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. From an early age she was an avid reader, even hiding her own books inside the school textbooks she was supposed to be reading in class. History and science were her favorite school...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With e.b. Lewis
Earl Bradley (E.B.) Lewis was born on December 16, 1956, in Philadelphia, PA. Inspired by two uncles who were artists, Lewis began taking art classes while he was still in elementary school and developed a particular interest in...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Grace Lin
Grace Lin grew up in Upstate New York with her parents and two sisters. While the other sisters became scientists, Grace became an artist. After attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Grace began working on children's books. Her...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With David Lubar
David Lubar was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey. His mother was a school librarian so he spent lots of time at the school library.
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Leonard Marcus
Leonard Marcus is one of the most respected writers and historians of children's literature. His critically acclaimed books have looked at Caldecott winners, the history and impact of Golden Books, fantasy writers, and the lives of other...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Patricia and Fredrick Mc Kissack
Patricia McKissack was born in 1944, in Smyrna, Tennessee. After moving around a bit, when she was 12 she and her family finally settled in Nashville. It was there that Patricia first met the then 17-year-old Fredrick. The two friends...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was born in 1933 in Anderson, Indiana, growing up during the Great Depression. Her parents shared theatrical read alouds with Naylor and her siblings every evening, well until her teen years. These shared stories,...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Kadir Nelson
Kadir Nelson is a naturally gifted artist whose extraordinary talent continues to develop and be discovered. Before the age of 30, Nelson had already illustrated children's books, sold paintings to celebrities, and worked on a movie...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Linda Sue Park
Linda Sue Park, Korean American author of children's fiction, has been an avid reader and writer her entire life. In fact, she began poetry and story writing before kindergarten - at the age of four. Growing up outside of Chicago, one...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Katherine Paterson
As the daughter of two missionaries, Katherine Paterson spent the first five years of her life in China. When the Japanese invaded during World War II, her family returned to the United States. By the age of 18, Paterson had moved over...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Rodman Philbrick
Rodman Philbrick was raised in New England - he was born in Boston in 1951 and grew up in a small town on the coast of New Hampshire, where his grandmother rented out cottages to summer visitors.
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1964. His mom, dad, and grandparents were all teachers. Rick didn't like to read much until he discovered the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Greek and Norse mythology in middle school. In the...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Pam Munoz Ryan
Pam Munoz Ryan was born in Bakersfield, California, in 1951. With half of her family from Mexico and the other half from Oklahoma, Munoz Ryan jokes that she grew up eating enchiladas one weekend and fried chicken the next. She was the...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Brian Selznick
From the time Brian Selznick was a young boy, it was clear that he had a gift for drawing. On his kindergarten report card, Brian's teacher noted that he was a good artist. At school Brian's classmates liked to gather around to see what...
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Ad lit.org: A Video Interview With Neal Shusterman
Neal Shusterman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Though he had lots of interests and aspirations in high school, he credits his ninth-grade English teacher, who challenged him to write a story a month for extra credit, with...