Annie Barrows
| Annie Barrows | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1962 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Website | http://www.anniebarrows.com/ |
Annie Barrows (born 1962 in San Diego, California) is an American editor and author. She is best known for the Ivy and Bean series of children's books, but she has written several other books for adult readers as well.[1]
Barrows was the second of two girls (her sister is two years older). She was born in San Diego, near the southern border of the state of California. However, when she was three weeks old the family moved to a small town, San Anselmo, in Northern California. She spent considerable time during her childhood in the town's children's library, where she eventually got a part-time job (during her junior high school years) maintaining the books and reshelving them.
Barrows attended UC Berkeley, originally majoring in English Literature, but graduating in Medieval History. She worked as an editor,[2] then decided to turn to writing. She enrolled in a writing school,[3] then began writing books for adults.
Barrows is married. She has two daughters.
Writing career
Barrows' first writing output was for adult non-fiction.[4] In 2003 she turned to Children's literature, for which she is most noted and honored. Of her interest in this area she has written:
- I sometimes think I've spent my entire life trying to recreate one particular afternoon of my tenth year. That was the day I lay on the couch reading a wonderful book called Time at the Top until I lost all sense of my real life and joined the life of the book instead. It was glorious, like walking into a dream. I want every kid to have that experience, but most of all, being horribly selfish, I want to have it again, too. And finally, I've discovered a way: I write books.[5]
Published works
- The Magic Half (2009)
- The Ivy & Bean series (2003-2014; 10 books published as of February 2015)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008; Barrows is listed as co-author, after she finished the book for her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, who fell ill and died before the book was ready for publication)
- Magic in the Mix (2014) (sequel to The Magic Half)
- The Truth According to Us (2015)
Awards and recognitions
- Kentucky Bluegrass Award nominee (2011)
- Mark Twain Readers Award nominee (2010–11)
- Virginia Readers' Choice nominee (2010–11)
- Rhode Island Children's Book Award nominee (2011)
- Massachusetts Children's Book Award nominee (2011)
- Sasquatch Reading Award nominee (2011)
- Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominee (2011–12)
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award nominee (2011–12)
References
- ↑ http://www.anniebarrows.com/ivyandbean/ivyandbean/bio/ Annie Barrows webpage, About Annie Barrows. Accessed 5 August 2012
- ↑ Barrows worked as an editor for an Art Criticism magazine, a publisher of high-school textbooks, a magazine which published fiction and poetry, a magazine which published short stories, and a book-publishing company, Chronicle Books in San Francisco.
- ↑ Barrows obtained an M.F.A. degree from Mills College in San Francisco, California.
- ↑ "She has written about fortune-telling (she can read palms), urban legends (there are no alligators in the sewer), and opera (she knows what they're singing about)." from The Magic Half website; accessed 5 August 2012. However, she wrote under other names, so these works are not available as Annie Barrows books. from the amazon.com website , accessed 5 August 2012
- ↑ http://www.anniebarrows.com/magichalf/aboutannie/ Annie Barrows website, The Magic Half. accessed 5 August 2012