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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET ANNA GROSSNICKLE HINES (4/2011)
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| Anna Grossnickle Hines |
I know the exact moment I first knew that I wanted to make books for boys and girls. I was sitting in my father’s chair in our living room looking at the Little Golden Books version of Heidi. It suddenly occurred to me that somebody had the job of making these pictures and stories. I loved making pictures and from that moment on, knew that was the job I wanted. The only other thing I ever wanted to be was a mother.
What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer – adult or children?
Always children.
When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career?
I was shy about my writing when I started to college. It wasn’t until I was teaching preschool and reading lots of books to children that I began to have story ideas growing in my head.
(or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)
I was an art major in college, and knew I wanted to illustrate children’s books. Unfortunately, my teachers didn’t think that was “real art”. They told me to go have a baby and get it out of my system and only Picasso gets away with drawing children. I persisted though, because to me, art that you can hold in your hand, curl up to look at in bed, is the best kind.
What was your first job when you graduated from college?
I taught preschool in the L.A. City Day Care Centers, then went back to school and got my teaching credentials and taught third grade for a while.
How soon after that was your first book published?
I started submitting my work to publishing companies in 1974, right after receiving my credentials to teach elementary school. Over the next seven years, I collected over one hundred “encouraging rejection” until, finally, in November 1981 I was offered my first contract. Taste the Raindrops was my nineteenth submission to Greenwillow Books. It came out on Valentine’s Day in 1983. By then I had sold three or four more books. I had finally learned how to write!
What are the topics are some of your books?
My early books tend to deal with everyday events in the lives of young children. Some still do, but most of the recent ones are collections of poems and quilts. I’m enjoying looking at the moments that bring beauty, joy, and peace into our lives.
Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere! Life is full of ideas, sensory experiences, emotional experiences, funny experiences. The ones I follow are the ones that touch my heart.
Have any of your books earned special recognition?
My books have been on many lists and received an award now and then. The most honored book is probably PIECES: A YEAR IN POEMS AND QUILTS which received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry.
Have any of your fiction stories been about real people or events?
Bits and pieces of real people and events are in all of my work. A few stories like ALL BY MYSELF and WHEN WE MARRIED GARY follow the real life events pretty closely, but most are snippets put together in ways very different from the real events.
When is your next book going to be in book stores?
PEACEFUL PIECES: POEMS AND QUILTS ABOUT PEACE just came out at the end of March 2011, and I AM A TYRANNOSAURUS, will out in July.
Has anyone ever written you a fan letter that you’d like to share?
When I started it was my wish that I’d write and illustrate a book, that some child would look back at after they were grown-up, and remember it as a favorite. Every now and then I get a request from someone for one of my old books, long out of print. Usually it is a parent who wants it as a gift for their child who is graduating high-school or college, or sometimes from someone who is about to become a parent and wants a copy of their favorite book to share with their own child. Those are the biggest rewards of all.