Jean Craighead George
Jean Craighead George
Jean Carolyn Craighead Georgewas an American writer of more than one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves and Newbery runner-up My Side of the Mountain. Common themes in George's works are the environment and the natural world. Beside children's fiction, she wrote at least two guides to cooking with wild foods and one autobiography published 30 years before her death, Journey Inward...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth2 July 1919
CountryUnited States of America
I have a perfect life where I read; I go out into the wilderness and camp. I meet scientists and learn about their studies of wild animals, and then I come home... and start creating the world I have seen.
There are always the kids who just love animals. Unfortunately, though, people have become afraid of the outdoors.
Every day, I get e-mails from kids who want a tree - a world away from the adult world.
I have discovered I cannot dream up characters as incredible as the ones I meet in the wilderness.
Most of these wild animals depart in autumn when the sun changes their behavior and they feel the urge to migrate or go off alone. While they are with us, however, they become characters in my books, articles, and stories.
Never before had I been offered a contract and advance before a word had been written... I went home and began writing 'Julie of the Wolves.'
My writing process is a mix of research, personal experiences, washing the dishes, raising kids while thinking - then writing.
I first became aware of the delights of the natural world when my father, an entomologist, presented me with what looked like a twig. When it got up and walked, my delight was such that I wrote a poem, 'To a Walking Stick.'
I would just watch the animals, and their stories would roll out when I wrote.
I hope my books empower kids, and that they learn how to work out their problems themselves.
I kept on writing and illustrating, for this is what I did well because I loved it.
I hope that the message I conveyed in 'Julie of the Wolves' is to tell young people to think things out. Think independently.
Children will often write, 'We love your books because there are no adults in them.'
Children are still in love with the wonders of nature, and I am, too. So I write them stories in hopes that they will want to protect all the beautiful creatures and places.