Author Study

Introduction

As a child, I did not enjoy reading for fun besides the usual short Dr. Seuss bedtime stories that my parents occasionally read to me.  As I got older and went to school, I found myself moaning and groaning every time I got assigned a book to read for class.  However, as I was rummaging to find the twenty-five children’s books for the annotated bibliography assignment, I came across the book, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”.  Instantly, It brought back all these childhood memories and I realized that this is one of the only books growing up that I enjoyed to read.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your series of an “If You Give..Book”.  This led me to choose to do Laura Numeroff for my author study.  I felt like I was a child again and I would enjoy teaching my future students her books and do fun assignments with them because if they enjoyed at least one book in the classroom, I know it would be her books.

About the Author

            Laura Numeroff was born in Brooklyn, New York and was the youngest of three girls.  Her father worked on the art staff of the World Telegram & Sun, which is one of New York's major newspapers. Her mother was a middle school home economics teacher. Growing up, Laura Numeroff was surrounded by art, music, and books.  Her parents broadened her horizons by introducing her to the love of reading, playing the piano, singing, dancing, science and stamp collecting.   In addition to that, as a child Laura loved her microscope, a box of crayons, her library card and being a girl scout.  Since she was a little girl, she loved to draw, read and make up stories.  She started writing her own stories and drew pictures to go with each story.  The public library was about five blocks from Laura’s house so you could always find her in there reading.  She absolutely loved Beverly Cleary, Marguerite Henry, the Dr. Doolittle series and books about animals. 

However, when Laura reached the age of fifteen, she changed her mind about becoming an author. She decided she wanted to follow her sister’s footsteps and wanted to become a fashion designer.  Although she went to a fashion designer school, Laura took classes in things she enjoyed like photography and animation.  By the time she was reading to graduate she took a class in writing and illustrating books for children which made her write an illustrate a children’s book and after several times trying to get it published she graduated from college with a degree and a contract for her first book.

Website : http://lauranumeroff.com/

Above is the link to Laura Numeroff's very own website.  Not only does she talk about her life growing up but also it is a very helpful site for people of all ages! There is links for a children's section, a parent's section, and even a teacher's section.