About Caroline
I have not taken a straight path to becoming a children’s writer, but when I look back I realize that’s what I always wanted to be. Here is an early outline for a book of fairy tales that I made as a child.
Thanks Mom for saving every doodle I ever made!
The house I grew up in on Fair Oaks Blvd in Sacramento, California was full of books. They lined the shelves in the living room and the dining room. They were stacked in piles by my father’s rocker, and they were even double shelved in cabinets above the fire place. A burglar once broke into the house when we weren’t home and opened all of the cabinets. We had to giggle at how disappointed he must have been to find nothing but books.
The books I remember reading or having read to me include Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes and Tennis Shoes, Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, and, of course, The Hobbit. The Hobbit was a whole family read meaning my father read from his rocking chair while my sister, my mother and I all lay together on the bed and listened to the adventures of Bilbo Baggins. I would get tickled just saying his funny alliterative name.
I started writing for children after having my own and being struck by the beauty and creativity of modern picture books for children. It took many false starts and rejections before I got published. I am kind of stubborn and dogged.
Now, as a part time instructor, I get to take my wonderful Guilford College students to Oxford, England where we visit some of Tolkien’s haunts: The Eagle and Child, The White Horse, and Pembroke College.
When I’m not taking students to Oxford, I live in Greensboro, North Carolina with my philosopher husband, and a big slobbery Labrador retriever. My two super smart, super fun daughters who inspired me to start writing for children have now flown the nest; one is graduating from college this spring and the other is a graduate student in history, but they are still my first readers and best critics.
My latest research interest is Black Mountain College in Black Mountain, North Carolina near Asheville. I have a book under contract about the artist Ruth Asawa, who studied under Joseph and Anni Albers at Black Mountain.
The house I grew up in on Fair Oaks Blvd in Sacramento, California was full of books. They lined the shelves in the living room and the dining room. They were stacked in piles by my father’s rocker, and they were even double shelved in cabinets above the fire place. A burglar once broke into the house when we weren’t home and opened all of the cabinets. We had to giggle at how disappointed he must have been to find nothing but books.
The books I remember reading or having read to me include Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes and Tennis Shoes, Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, and, of course, The Hobbit. The Hobbit was a whole family read meaning my father read from his rocking chair while my sister, my mother and I all lay together on the bed and listened to the adventures of Bilbo Baggins. I would get tickled just saying his funny alliterative name.
I started writing for children after having my own and being struck by the beauty and creativity of modern picture books for children. It took many false starts and rejections before I got published. I am kind of stubborn and dogged.
Now, as a part time instructor, I get to take my wonderful Guilford College students to Oxford, England where we visit some of Tolkien’s haunts: The Eagle and Child, The White Horse, and Pembroke College.
When I’m not taking students to Oxford, I live in Greensboro, North Carolina with my philosopher husband, and a big slobbery Labrador retriever. My two super smart, super fun daughters who inspired me to start writing for children have now flown the nest; one is graduating from college this spring and the other is a graduate student in history, but they are still my first readers and best critics.
My latest research interest is Black Mountain College in Black Mountain, North Carolina near Asheville. I have a book under contract about the artist Ruth Asawa, who studied under Joseph and Anni Albers at Black Mountain.