THE ARTIST AND THE HARE: My Antelope Jackrabbit Engraving from Long Ago

Antelope Jackrabbit by Caroline Scheaffer Arnold, 1966 (engraving on copper plate, 21.5 x 13.5 inches.)

At my last book group meeting we discussed Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton, the award-winning story of a woman’s relationship with a wild hare that she found—by accident—as a day-old leveret, cared for, and allowed the freedom to come and go from her home as it grew up and produced her own leverets. It is a moving story of learning to live with nature and of the complex interrelationships in the natural world.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (2024), illustrated by Denise Nestor.

The book is illustrated with beautiful, detailed drawings of the hare by wildlife artist Denise Nestor. As I looked at her art I recalled my own drawing of a hare--an antelope jackrabbit, which is a species of hare that lives in the American Southwest)-- when I was an art student at the University of Iowa. In my prints class we were provided animal specimens borrowed from the biology department to practice our drawing skills. I drew the jackrabbit life size, then engraved it on a large copper plate which I then printed using one of the large hand presses. I haven’t thought about it for a long time, but after reading Raising Hare I was inspired to get it out. It is still looking at me with watchful eyes.

Detail of my engraving.

The antelope jackrabbit is known for its exceptionally long ears, which can grow to be 6-7 inches long. 

DOTS AND SWIRLS, ALEXANDER CALDER TAPESTRIES, Western Washington University Art Gallery

Detail, Alexander Calder Tapestry, Western Washington University Art Gallery.

When you think of artist Alexander Calder, you picture his colorful mobiles and giant stabiles. But he also worked in other media. In 1974-1975 he designed a series of 13 colorful tapestries made of dyed and braided maguey-fibers. They were manufactured in Nicaragua. A set of the tapestries, conserved in 2012 to their original brilliance by a group of students and volunteers at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, under the direction of Geoffrey I. Brown, is currently on display in the gallery of the Performing Arts Center on campus.

On a visit to Bellingham last summer I had the opportunity to see the tapestries. In each, bold colors and shapes create striking patterns and designs. The tightly woven fibers create a subtle surface texture. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Calder tapestries are a gift of Niels H. Lauersen to the Collection of Western Gallery, Western Washington University. For more about other art on exhibit at Western Washington University, click HERE.

KERLAN COLLECTION: Donation of Book Materials

As I continue to clean out the closet in my office where I keep the working materials from my published books, I have been donating manuscripts, letters, reviews, and other items to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota.

The Kerlan Collection at the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota is an internationally recognized center of research in the field of children’s literature. The Collection contains original materials, including manuscripts, artwork, galleys, and color proofs for more than 1,700 children’s book creators. These materials represent over a century of American children’s books and selected titles published in other countries. The Kerlan Collection also includes more than 110,000 children’s books.

My most recent donation is a box of books and associated materials from four of my books that were published by Charlesbridge Books.

Shockers of the Sea (1999)

Did You Hear That? (2001)

Birds: Nature's Magnificent Flying Machines (2003)

Super Swimmers: Whales, Dolphins and Other Mammals of the Sea (2007) 

 

I am proud to have my work included in the Kerlan Collection and hope that future students of children’s literature will find it of use in their research.

For a complete list of my books in the Kerlan Collection archive go to my website and scroll down to the bottom of the About the Author page .

For my post about my visit to the Kerlan Collection in 2022 click HERE.

WHERE IN THE WORLD? World Map Project, 2006, by Antonia Hirsch

Equal Countries A-Z, from the World Map Project, 2006, giclee print on paper, edition 5/5. By Antonia Hirsch.

On my recent trip to Vancouver, Canada, I encountered this print in the Art Museum on the University of British Columbia campus. Every country in the world is represented, from A to Z, with their contours correct but their land masses equalized. How many countries can you identify? Remember, they are in alphabetical order!

THANK YOU LETTERS FROM ESPERANZA SCHOOL

Illustration on letter from student at Esperanza School, Los Angeles, CA.

I am always delighted to receive thank you letters from students after I do an author visit at their school. In March I visited Mrs. Williams class at Esperanza School in Los Angeles, sharing my books with the students and getting a tour of the natural habitat school garden. (See my post March 24, 2025.) Each of the students had the opportunity to choose one of my books to be purchased for them by the school. Afterward, the students wrote letters to me and illustrated them with their favorite books. I just received them along with a lovely note from Mrs. Williams. One student wrote: "I was amazed that you said that you wrote about 100 books." Another wrote: "I wish I can be an author like you one day."  I especially love the letter from Emma, who told me about how she learned to make dragon puppets until she became a “pro puppeteer.” She ended her letter with this: “I have some advice. Never give up, keep going, never stop your dream! And my favorite book is A Day and Night on the Prairie because there are many animals that I like.” Her illustration is at the top of this post.

Letters from students at Esperanza School

It is letters like these that make me glad I am an author.

WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH: Meeting Wooly Mammoths in the Natural Science Museum, Bergamo, Italy

Wooly Mammoth models at the Natural Science Museum, Bergamo, Italy.

In 2002, my book WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH was published by Clarion Books. It covered the worldwide occurrence of mammoths, from the wooly mammoths that wandered much of the northern hemisphere during the last Ice Age to the huge Columbian Mammoths, like those whose skeletons are displayed at the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles, where I live. On my recent trip to Italy, I visited the Natural Science Museum in Bergamo, where I encountered models of a wooly mammoth mother and her calf. It was like meeting old friends. As I looked out into the foothills of the Alps behind Bergamo, I could image herds of mammoths just like these models that wandered Italian valleys as prehistoric people began to make their homes here.

The hardback edition of WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH is out of print, but you can find it as an ebook on Amazon. Or you can look for the print book in your library!

Growing to weights of 10 tons and distinguished by enormous curling tusks, mammoths were the largest land animals of the Ice Age. In this meticulously researched, clear, and accessible book, award-winning nonfiction author Caroline Arnold describes the natural history of mammoths, highlighting their physical features and adaptation to the environment. Laurie Caple’s stunning, scientifically accurate watercolors complement the text and provide an intriguing look at these huge creatures.(Amazon)

 

WIGGLE AND WAGGLE ACTIVITIES: Teachers' Tuesdays Educator Guide by Christine Van Zandt

Thanks so much to Christine Van Zandt for promoting my book Wiggle and Waggle and its wonderful activity guide on her Teacher Tuesday posts for this week. She has posted it on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can click on THIS LINK for the guide. 

To purchase a paperback copy of the book click HERE. 

FIVE NESTS ILLUSTRATION BY RUTH SANDERSON, On Display at the Free Library of Philadelphia

I was delighted to learn from my friend, librarian Carol Koneff, that an illustration by Ruth Sanderson for my very first published book, Five Nests, is on display in a special exhibit at the Free Library ofPhiladelphia. 

Carol saw the exhibit while visiting the library when she was in Philadelphia for the annual conference of the American Library Association. The exhibit, called Go Birds: Appreciating our Avian Friends, includes items from the library archives and will be up through August 30^th,  2025.

Ruth Sanderson’s illustration for my book depicts a rhea nest. (Rheas are large South American birds related to ostriches.) The rhea is an example of a bird species in which the male, or father bird, is the sole caretaker of the eggs and chicks. The illustration was donated to the library by Ruth.

A number of years ago I met Ruth for the first time at a children’s book conference. (We never met when Five Nests was published in 1980, which is not unusual.) After the conference Ruth sent me the original illustration for another page in the book that depicted Mexican Jays. In this species, multiple generations look after the young. In 2016, when I was in Philadelphia and learned that the library had a copy of Five Nests in their permanent archive, I donated that illustration to the library. I am pleased to learn that Ruth has donated other illustrations from the book as well.

Although Five Nests launched my career as a children’s book writer, it had a rocky start. It received a negative review in SLJ (unfairly, I thought) and as a consequence, many libraries, including my own, chose not to approve it for purchase. By the time Five Nests was named an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the NSTA/CBC the following year, it was too late. The book had already been remaindered. So I am especially pleased to see that it lives on at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

For more about Five Nests and the Free Library of Philadelphia:

My post on the 40th anniversary of the publication of Five Nests.

My post on the Philadelphia Free Library's Children's Literature Research Collection.

READ ABOUT SHARKS DURING SHARK WEEK and Beyond

IT'S SHARK WEEK!--the annual celebration of sharks on the Discovery Channel. What better time to read about sharks! You can find the e-books of my books WATCH OUT FOR SHARKS and GIANT SHARK on Amazon. You may also be able to find the hardback copies of the books in your library.

WATCH OUT FOR SHARKS: Based on a major international exhibit that traveled for five years in North America, this book depicts the fascinating world of sharks.

GIANT SHARK: MEGALODON, PREHISTORIC SUPER PREDATOR: For millions of years, a massive shark more than twice as huge as the modern-day great white shark cruised the depths of the ocean, attacking and devouring prey. Fossil remains reveal megalodon to have been more than fifty feet long, with razor-sharp teeth, each the size of a human hand, and jaws so large it could swallow prey larger than a common dolphin. Fluid, detailed watercolors accompany this clear and accessible account of one of the most incredible creatures to inhabit our world.

ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION: THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR Now Available as an E-Book

My book, ON THE BRING OF EXTINCTION: THE CALIFORNIACONDOR, illustrated with photographs by Michael Wallace, is now available as an e-book on Amazon. Originally published in 1993 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich as a hardback and paperback, it documents the work of the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park to rescue the then nearly extinct condor and restore it in the wild.  

The paper editions of the book have long been out-of-print. I thank the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association Condor Fund for their cooperation in bringing the book back to life as an e-book. You can download it to your tablet, computer or phone to read it. The pages will appear exactly as they do in the print book. Note that it cannot be read on a Kindle e-reader. (It is a print replica file and does not have reflowable text.)

 

SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL at ALA, Displayed in the Combined Book Exhibit

SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL displayed at the ALA Combined Book Exhibit, June 2025

With many thanks to Colleen Paeff for stopping by the Combined Book Exhibit booth at the American Library Association annual conference in Philadelphia two weeks ago and taking a photo of my book SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL Growing Up in the 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was thrilled to see it so prominently displayed! I hope that some of the children's librarians attending the conference were able to see it and make the connection to my children's books. I know Colleen through two of my book discussion groups in LA and was glad she could be my eyes and ears at the conference. Colleen, a brilliant new nonfiction author, was at ALA signing her books The Big Stink and Firefly Song.

PTEROSAURS, Winged Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age: A Visit with Eudimorphodon in Bergamo, Italy

Caroline at the Eudimorphodon exhibit at the Natural History Museum, Bergamo, Italy.

In 2003, when I was researching my book PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, I visited the Natural History Museum in Bergamo, Italy, to learn more about Eudimorphodon, the pterosaur whose fossil skeleton had been found in the mountains nearby. (See my post of Feb 24, 2014 about that visit.) 

In early June this year I returned to Bergamo and the museum to get another look at Eudimorphodon and the rest of the exhibits.

The fossil skeleton of Eudomorphodon is remarkably complete.

What I especially like about the exhibit is the diorama depicting a model of Eudimorphodon in flight, demonstrating how it likely caught fish that were its main food. (Fossil scales and fish bones within the skeleton reveal Eudimorphodon’s diet.)

Going back to the museum was like meeting an old friend. PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age was published in 2004 by Clarion Books. It is still available on Amazon as an e-book and as an audio book. Or, you can look for it in your library.

ESPRESSO MACHINE ETCHING FROM 1965: Memories from My Years at Grinnell College

Coffee House in the Forum, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa 1965.

In the spring of 1965 there was a new student center on the campus of Grinnell College--the Forum, a modern steel and glass structure designed by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Among its features was a coffee shop built around a shiny Italian espresso machine—something that felt very modern and sophisticated in the middle of Iowa. On weekends, poetry readings and stand-up performances were held in the coffee house.

Espresso Machine, etching by Caroline Scheaffer Arnold, 1965

I was an art student at Grinnell and made an etching of the coffee shop for one of my classes. My friends Dottie and Dick Metzler have had a copy of that print ever since we were fellow students at Grinnell. None of us can remember whether they bought the print at the annual student art sale or if I gave it to them as a wedding present. In any case, they have recently donated it to the college as both a piece of art and a record of college history. When they first proposed to donate the print several years ago, they contacted me. Here’s what I wrote back:

Your picture of my print of the espresso machine in the old Forum coffee house brought back memories. I would be pleased to have you offer the print to Grinnell. The print is an etching that I made in a prints class taught by Richard Cervene. I do have a confession to make. The name of the espresso machine is not Campanelli. I made the sketch for the print in the coffee house (the setting and various objects are correct) but I didn't put the name of the machine in my sketch. Back in the art building later, when I was transferring my drawing to the etching plate I added the name but misremembered it. (I should have gone back to check.) So, as far as historical interest is concerned, everything is accurate except the name of the machine!

The plan is for my espresso machine etching to be hung in the new Alumni House in a room honoring Dottie Metzler, who passed away in 2020.

The espresso machine in one of its later locations.

Note: The coffee shop in the Forum is long gone and the building is no longer a student center. (It is used for offices.)  But the espresso machine lived on for many more years at other campus locations. And it will be remembered forever in photos and in my etching. 

ALA COMBINED BOOK EXHIBIT: Look for SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL!

This year the annual American Library Association convention is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, as usual, the exhibit hall will be filled with publishers' booths promoting all their latest books. You can find my memoir SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: Growing Up in the 1950s at Northeast Neighborhood House in the Combined Book Exhibit, Booth #1838, which features independently published books. Although my book is for adults, I think it will be of interest to teachers and librarians who know me as a children's book writer. The roots of my career can be found in my childhood.

Click HERE for a map of the exhibit floor and Booth #1838. You can find both the paperback and ebook of SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL in the Combined Book Exhibit booth. For an ebook preview of the first chapter of the book click on the link on the Combined Book Exhibit webpage for the book.

Book Description

A chronicle of children's book author Caroline Arnold's childhood living at a settlement house--from nursery school and after school clubs to summers at camp. A window into life at mid-century and Caroline's future as a writer and illustrator.

Book Review 

"The narrative presents a wealth of historical information as well as an insider's view of an uncommon subject matter." BookLife Prize review

TOOTLE—Learning to STAY ON THE TRACKS, NO MATTER WHAT! Memories of Childhood

TOOTLE was a favorite Golden Book of my childhood. Tootle is a baby train, who along with other young train engines goes to train school to learn skills such as pulling the dining car without spilling the soup, and, most importantly, to STAY ON THE TRACKS NO MATTER WHAT—even when playing in the meadow is more fun.

A week ago, I was at a street fair in Pennsylvania that featured vintage wares, and one of the booths had a box of old children’s books. And what should I see at the front of the pile—a copy of TOOTLE! Of course, I bought it.

Listening to TOOTLE being read by Fran Guzie at NENH, 1950.

TOOTLE brings back memories of my life at North East Neighborhood House in Minneapolis where I lived with my family until I was ten years old. From the windows of our apartment on the third floor we saw freight trains huffing and puffing along the tracks across the street on the other side of Bottineau Park. In my memoir SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: Growing Up in the 1950sat North East Neighborhood House I write about my brother Steve’s fascination with trains and our exciting train trip across the river to St. Paul.

Steve’s favorite book was TOOTLE. In the photo at the beginning of my chapter about the train trip you can see Steve and a neighbor child listening raptly to Fran Guzie (one of the NENH residents) reading TOOTLE. (I appear to be engrossed in another book and only half listening. Perhaps, I had heard the story of Tootle too many times before.)

In any case, I was delighted to find TOOTLE once again and its reminder of the importance of STAYING ON THE TRACKS NO MATTER WHAT.

TOOTLE is written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely. It was first published in 1946 by Western Publishing Company. The copy I found at the street fair was the 24^th printing in 1969. The book is still available on Amazon.

LISTEN TO RECORDINGS OF MY BOOKS ON AUDIBLE: Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Skeletons

I just discovered that several of my books are available to listen to at Audible on Amazon. If you like to listen to books while you are jogging, working in the garden, or riding in the car, then this is for you. You have to sign into and buy the subscription to the Audible program, but there are many books available, some of them free. The quality of the reading (different readers for each book) is excellent. You can try out samples HERE. So far, the following titles of my books are available on Audible:

Pterosaurs:Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age

You Skeletal System

Dinosaurs with Feathers: Ancestors of Modern Birds

 

SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL and BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6 at the Pioneer Bookshop, Grinnell, Iowa

At the Pioneer Bookshop, Grinnell Iowa, with my book SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL.

I was pleased to be one of more than a dozen Grinnell College alumni with books on display (and for sale) at the Pioneer Bookshop, Grinnell, Iowa, during the recent Alumni Reunion weekend. 

My memoir, SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: Growing Up inthe 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota was there as well as BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6, one of my recent books for children. SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL ends with my graduation from Grinnell, which coincided with my family’s move to California. 

Although I had majored in art at Grinnell, I didn’t know then that my eventual career would be as a children’s book writer and illustrator. A complete collection of my published books is in the Grinnell College Library.