October

Growing up, he never wanted to be anything other than a veterinarian. After going to school in Glasgow he dreamed of having a cutting-edge and flashy practice. He instead wound up, in his own words, "sitting on a high Yorkshire moor in shirt sleeves and Wellingtons, smelling vaguely of cows." But he fell in love with Yorkshire and the challenging life of a country veterinarian. After over twenty-five years as a veterinarian, Herriot started writing. He said he wanted to tell people what it was like to be an animal doctor before penicillin and modern medicine, and also about all of the people and funny events that he met on his daily rounds. It took him a long time to decide to finally write down his stories. In the end, his wife challenged him. He was telling her about his day, and said that he would put part of it in his book. She said to him, "Jim, you are never going to write a book." She reminded him that he had been talking about it for twenty-five years and had never written anything. He protested. She replied that old vets don't just suddenly write books. Herriot said, "That did it. I went straight out, bought a lot of paper and got down to the job." His first book was If Only They Could Talk (1970). It took him four years to get it published. The publishers only made 1200 copies, and it was not a success. He thought that this would be his only book. But he still had more stories to tell, and so he wrote another book, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1972). He suddenly became successful when these two works were published together in the United States as All Creatures Great and Small (1972). The book became a bestseller, and Herriot became a famous author.

October 8th is the birthday of R(obert) L(awrence) Stine, born in Columbus, Ohio (1943). He wrote a series called Fear Street and then launched the more popular Goosebumps book series in 1992-scary tales aimed at eight- to eleven-year-olds. The books in the series have names like Say Cheese and Die! (1992), The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (1995), and The Horror at Camp Jellyjam (1995). As a child he spent hours alone, was always picked last for the team and often got lost in an imaginary world. He wrote stories though, typing them with one finger, as he still does. He typed out jokes and stories and handed them out at school, even though his teacher kept confiscating them. He was inspired by horror comic strips like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. He read them every Saturday at the barbershop, when he got his weekly hair cut. His most recent book is The Sitter (2003), about a haunted babysitting experience.	R.L. Stine's writing schedule Goosebumps Scholastic Inc.

November

Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle Biographical Information November 29, 1918 L'Engle, Woman of Many Hats New and Recent L'Engle Books

February

Author Spotlight All About Cynthia Voigt Author Profile-In her own words Cynthia Voigt LINKS

Cynthia has won many awards for her children's and young adult books. Among these awards were the Newbery Medal for Dicey's Song and, in 1990, the California Young Reader's Award for Izzy, Willy Nilly. Most recently, the versatile author turned to a more gritty, realistic choice of
subject matter in When She Hollers, a riveting novel about a teenager who decides to defend herself against her stepfather's abuse.