Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo
Katrina Elizabeth "Kate" DiCamillo is an American writer of children's fiction for all reading levels, usually featuring animals. She is one of six people to win two Newbery Medals, recognizing her novels The Tale of Despereauxand Flora and Ulysses. Her best-known books for young children are Mercy Watson series illustrated by Chris Van Dusen...
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth25 March 1964
CityPhiladelphia, PA
fun thinking parent
I don't know what Alison [McGhee] thinks, but I very strongly doubt that we will ever see the parents of Bink or Gollie. However, I do think it would be fun to make Tony Fucile draw portraits of the parental units and have those portraits sitting on Bink's mantel or in Gollie's kitchen. Glowering. A little.
father leaving world
My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.
children writing philadelphia
I was born in Philadelphia and currently live in Minneapolis. I write for both children and adults.
writing attention pay-attention
Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.
war
There is nothing worse than war in the summetime.
children reading thinking
It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. I think the best way for children to treasure reading is for them to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.
reading people profound
I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.
children book writing
For children: I'm writing a picture book about the Big Dipper and a novel about a cricket, a firefly and a vole. For grownups: I'm writing poems.
writing rewriting screenplays
I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.
patterns i-can
I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.
together world
When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.
writing drawing childhood
Everything I write comes from my childhood in one way or another. I am forever drawing on the sense of mystery and wonder and possibility that pervaded that time of my life.
writing play pieces
I always write with music. It takes me a while to figure out the right piece of music for what I'm working on. Once I figure it out, that's the only thing I'll play.
powerful elephants magic
If the world held magic powerful enough to make the elephant appear, then there must exist, too, magic in equal measure, magic powerful enough to undo what had been done.