We had two very different authors this week, both of whom received their share of rejection letters.
36. With characters as diverse as a dog named after a grocery store, a mouse with large ears, and a large china rabbit, what this author’s award-winning books have in common is that they are very popular with children and adults.
As Heather predicted, the author in this question is multiple award-winner Kate DiCamillo. The clues refer to her books Because of Winn-Dixie (a Newbery Honor winner), The Tale of Despereaux (Newbery Medal winner), and The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane (winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award).
In addition to her novels, Kate has been writing a series of beginning readers featuring a pig named Mercy Watson.
Through all of her writing, Kate continued to work at a used bookstore. Be sure to visit Kate’s website, particularly her article about using your observation skills in writing.
If you are interested in Kate DiCamillo, you will find this video an enlightening glimpse into her experiences as a writer. She says that what separates her from some of the other writers that were in her classes is her willingness to keep going despite the rejection letters.
For Kate DiCamillo’s books, see:
37. This author started out writing mostly nonfiction for magazines, but after 15 years tried writing fiction books for children and found his passion. Baseball figures prominently in many of his books.
Dan Gutman says he writes for children who don’t like to read, because he didn’t like to read when he was a kid. It must be a winning formula, because his books are very popular.
But even a successful author has some rough spots, as Dan writes in his article about the rejection letters he received for his book Honus and Me.
In this video, Dan Gutman introduces himself.
Here he talks about how his book, The Christmas Genie, came about (particularly since Gutman is Jewish).
Dan Gutman’s books: