January Featured Author – Kate DiCamillo

Each month I will be giving special attention to a young adult author and read as many of their books as I can manage.  This month’s pick is Kate DiCamillo.  This multiple award winning author is known for her simple and easy to read stories.  While her books are available to young readers they have enough depth to delight grown readers as well.  There is something about her stories that is ready made for sharing between generations.

One of my pet peeves is something I call The Great Divide.  In elementary school reading is all fun and games and in high school it is all vocabulary words and literature tests.  One of my personal passions is seeing the divide bridged by exposing kids to literature at a younger age and keeping fun in the classroom at an older age. DiCamillo’s writing seems to achieve this.

DiCamillo’s youth played a significant roll in her future as a writer.  She was a voracious reader with a deep, vivid imagination.  And this clearly translates into her writing. After reading Tiger Rising last year and hearing that her other books were similar I was eager to read more.