Author Review: Caralyn Buehner

I decided to do my author review on children's literature author, Caralyn Buehner. I love the "Snowman" books that she has written, but my favorite book of hers is "Fanny's Dream." I also love to remind my kids when they "occasionally" {wink} use bad manners, "It's a spoon, not a shovel!" I love that she didn't plan on becoming an author, but kind of fell in to it because she loves reading so much. And I love that one of her favorite books as a child was "Where the Wild Things Are." Me too! Here is some background on her, as well as a link to the entire article, which includes an interview:

"Caralyn Buehner grew up in Salt Lake City, the youngest child in a family of bookworms. She remembers being read to as a child by her mother, and has very fond memories of some children named Sally, Dick and Jane, and seems to remember a dog named Spot. By the time she was in 6th grade, she had perfected the art of undetected nocturnal reading, and had written a chapter of a romance novel. She won state and national awards for her writing in her teenage years, but didn't plan to be an author.

"Her marriage to illustrator Mark Buehner brought some changes. When Mark began illustrating children's books, he encouraged Caralyn to write. In the past decade they have collaborated on seven children's picture books, and eight children. Caralyn's writing has been honored with two Utah Children's Choice Awards, a CBC Children's Choice Award, Parent's Choice Award, an ALA Notable Book, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award.Her favorite writing, however, is the chronicling of everyday events for herself and her children in journals. She believes that sharing our personal perspective is the most powerful and important writing we may do, and can make an "ordinary" life extraordinary."

Published picture books by Caralyn include:

The Escape of Marvin the Ape (1992)

A Job For Wittilda (1993)

It's A Spoon, Not A Shovel (1995)

Fanny's Dream (1996)

I Did It, I'm Sorry (1998)

I Want to Say I Love You (2001)

Snowmen at Night (2002)

Superdog: the Heart of a Hero (2004)

She has a new book that I can't wait to read that came out in September of this year called "The Queen of Style.":

Queen Sophie rules a small, happy kingdom of farmers, but she herself isn’t happy. Nobody ever comes to her with a problem, and she is bored to tears . . . until she spots an ad for the Royal College of Beauty correspondence course. Soon she is memorizing directions and practicing her lessons in a frenzy. She starts writing proclamations, demanding that her subjects come to the castle so that she can cut and curl and color their hair. Even the sheep must be coiffed. It’s not long before Sophie finds herself facing an angry—though very stylish!-mob!

To read the interview click here. More great info about her and her husband Mark can be found here.