Author: A True Story

Author: A True Story

So begins the story of Helen Lester, author of Tacky the Penguin and many other popular books for children. By sharing her struggles as a child and later as a successful author, she demonstrates that hurdles are part of the process. She even gives writing tips, such as keeping a "fizzle box." Helen Lester uses her unique ability to laugh at her mistakes to create both a guide for young writers and an amusing personal story of the disappointments and triumphs of a writer's life. Kindergarten-Grade 4. A picture-book autobiography that looks at the genesis of a writer from childhood to first publication, with all of the setbacks along the way. Jaunty cartoons add just the right tone to this inspirational success story. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gr. 2^-4. Lester's wry, funny, illustrated autobiography has the immediacy of an author's visit to the library or the classroom. There is no bragging; in fact, she talks a lot about disappointment and failure, from a problem in first grade with her "mirror writing" to her repeated rejections as an adult author. Her comic cartoons are as direct and unassuming as the words: on one page she contrasts her own cartoon of a pig with her illustrator Lynn Munsinger's virtuoso performance. Kids will recognize themselves in Lester's eagerness (as a three-year-old she knew exactly what her writing said; even upside down, the words said the same thing), and they will be encouraged by her persistence and by her admission that writing is hard; sometimes she just can't come up with a single idea. Sometimes, though, ideas come so fast she can barely write them down. Both modest and celebratory, this book is a lively answer to that inevitable question, Where do you get your ideas? Hazel Rochman A breezy look at the trials and triumphs of authorship from Lester (Princess Penelope's Parrot, 1996). She began her writing career at age three by inundating her patient mother with hundreds of scrawled grocery lists: ``And the fun part was that I could turn each list upside down and the words said the same thing.'' She is disarmingly candid about her frustrations with writing in school, the discouragement of having her first six books rejected, and the labor of turning ideas into finished works. Always apparent is her delight in the process of creation and in meeting her audience: ``This is better than a dream come true.'' Accompanying her words are her own cheery drawings, depicting herself with the same spiky blond hair and argyle tights from childhood on. Easy to read and reassuringly realistic. (Picture book. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "Lester's lighthearted book at how she came to write children's books will give aspiring authors of any age a lift and encouragement to persevere." -- Review Author is as much a paean to joy as it is a litany of obstacles, a celebration of success as well as a chronicle of misfires.... Lester's book should be an anthem for writers young and old, especially those who seem never to leave a thought unpublished. -- The New York Times Book Review, J. Patrick Lewis Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger have been together through thick and thin since first publishing The Wizard, the Fairy, and the Magic Chicken in 1983. They have collaborated on the hilarious Tacky the Penguin series and many other wildly funny and popular titles, including the award-winning Hooway for Wodney Wat. Helen Lester is a full-time writer who makes her home in Pawling, New York, and Lynn Munsinger is a full-time illustrator living in Massachusetts.