Welcome to Books by Maryann Macdonald

Here Hans Christian Andersen and I are enjoying the sunshine in Central Park in New York City, my new home. I walk in the park nearly every day, and when I pass Andersen's statue I often think of the power his stories had over me when I was a child. Even though the famous storyteller lived during the 1800's and I didn't read his work until more than a hundred years later, I knew what it was like to feel ashamed, like Andersen's Ugly Duckling, and to long for impossible love, like his Little Mermaid.

I grew up in a big family near Detroit (Francie in my book Secondhand Star lives in a big family, too.). With eight kids and lots of pets (Princess Josie’s Pets is about a girl who loves animals), our house was always crowded and noisy. My Irish grandmother sometimes lived with us, too. She was a good storyteller and so was my father. Grandma told us stories about all the naughty things she did when she was a little girl (true) and Dad told us about all of his adventures when he was a cowboy (not-so-true). Dad also read Grimm’s Fairy Tales to us and took us to the library every single week. So it’s not surprising I grew up loving stories and wanting to write my own.

I love the fable about the tortoise and the hare! The hare thinks he is so fast that no one can beat him in a race… but the tortoise challenges him anyway. On the day of the race, the hare is so sure he will win that he takes a nap when he is only halfway to the finish line. The tortoise keeps plodding along, slowly but steadily. In the end, the tortoise wins the race.

Are you like that tortoise? I am. My first children’s book was rejected by 15 publishers, but I believed in it and kept sending it out. When it was finally published, it continued to sell, slowly and steadily, for 15 years! Since then I have published 20 more children's books and had lots of fun doing it. The latest one, The Costume Copycat, is a story about Angela, a girl whose sister always steals the show on Halloween night.

Read about The Costume Copycat
and More in My Books

Hello from New York!

Illustration by Lynn Munsinger
from my book, Hedgehog Bakes a Cake.

MARYANN MACDONALD'S
RECIPE FOR A GOOD STORY

• Take one likeable person.

• Put him/her into a place.
• Add a problem.
• Mix the problem into your character's life, while adding action.
• Make sure your person makes lots of mistakes trying to solve the problem.
• Create a climax when the mistakes can’t get any worse.
• Find an ending that’s happy, sad or funny – but make it surprising if you can!

Would you like me to come and cook up some great stories with your class?