BIO BLURBS for CALIFORNIA READERS: Recent Years in a Nutshell

The We Love California Authors and Illustrators Luncheon is coming up soon.  Click HERE for more information and online registration.
How many times have you been asked to prepare a bio in 50 words or less, 30 words or less, or some other seemingly impossible small number? Every year, for the California Readers luncheon, to be held this year on Saturday February 22, 2014, authors are asked to prepare a short bio to be read aloud for their introduction to the people in the audience--teachers, librarians, students, friends and other authors and illustrators.  The bios are meant to be short, and, if possible, contain some sort of twist, or surprise. I attend the luncheon almost every year, and as I looked through my computer files and read my bio blurbs for past luncheons I was reminded of the various books I've done over the past decade. A few years are missing either because I didn't attend the luncheon or I didn't save a copy of my blurb.  In any case, for highlights of my recent writing activities (and a few personal notes) here they are:
 
2013: Her newest book is TOO HOT? TOO COLD? Keeping Body Temperature Just Right.  You may not know that when Caroline was ten years old she attempted to read all the books in the public library.  Did she?  No, but she came close.

2012:  Her newest book, A WARMER WORLD, focuses on animals and how they have been impacted by climate change.  Caroline loves doing school visits.  Her favorite question came from a student who asked: If you could meet one extinct animal, what would it be?  Her, answer: a small feathered dinosaur.

2010: Her love of travel and fascination with the natural world has inspired her newest books, A POLAR BEAR'S WORLD, A WALRUS' WORLD, A MOOSE'S WORLD and A BALD EAGLE'S WORLD, all illustrated with her own cut paper art.  If she had traveled to the Arctic 65 million years ago, she might have seen dinosaurs instead of polar bears.  Read about these hardy polar reptiles in her other new book, GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DINOSAURS.

2009: Her newest books are A KOALA'S WORLD, A KANGAROO'S WORLD, A PLATYPUS' WORLD, and A WOMBAT'S WORLD, all illustrated with her own cut paper art.  Caroline recently returned to her home state of Minnesota to participate in a 5K snowshoe race. She didn’t win, but the trip helped her get in the mood for illustrating her upcoming books about Arctic animals.

2008: She had a bumper crop of new books in 2007 including WIGGLE AND WAGGLE, five stories about two hardworking worms, SUPER SWIMMERS: Whales, Dolphins and other Mammals of the Sea, GIANT SEA REPTILES OF THE DINOSAUR AGE, and TAJ MAHAL, co-written with Madeleine Comora, about the great love that inspired this magnificent building. 

2006: Her newest book is a tall tale, The TERRIBLE HODAG AND THE ANIMAL CATCHERS about a fearsome creature with the head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur and tail of an alligator.  Caroline has recently resumed her career as an artist and has four new books that she illustrated with cut paper collage.  The are all about black and white animals–pandas, zebras, killer whales and penguins–and she assures you that she cut out every single spot and stripe.

2005:  Her most recent title, PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, tells about amazing prehistoric flying reptiles with giant wing spans and difficult to pronounce names (the “p” in “pterosaur” is silent), that flew over the earth in dinosaur times.  Although most of Caroline’s books are nonfiction, she also writes fiction and has recently resumed her career as an illustrator.  She has two new board books for toddlers, WHO IS BIGGER? and WHO HAS MORE?, that she illustrated with cut paper collage.