 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
MORE THAN YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW
IRA’s Listen Up! Episode 10 15-minute 2011 interview
Follett Library Resources “Behind the Book” interview
A Conversation with Kathleen Krull
MEET ME AT THE CORNER interview
Kathleen Krull Nonfiction Author Study, a video by Lisa Snitker
Speaking at the 2004 National Book Festival
Two students at Eagle Hill Middle School do a report
Co-author of MyWorld History: A World History Curriculum by Pearson
Papers now being catalogued at the Kerlan Collection
When I was fifteen, I was fired from my part-time job at the library. The reason? Reading too much--while I was supposed to be working. Luckily, I had other jobs. One began when I was twelve: playing organ at my church. At seventeen I taught piano lessons to kids in my town My musical background did inspire several books: Songs of Praise; I Hear America Singing; M Is for Music; and especially Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (And What the Neighbors Thought). Another job involved selling doughnuts and cupcakes at a bakery, which hasn’t led to any books so far.Then, the day after I graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, I began a career in children’s publishing and have stayed there ever since. Over the course of eleven years, I worked for four companies as a children’s book editor. While on the job, I wrote mysteries in the Trixie Belden series, a collection of Christmas carols, and a 24-book concept series. Finally, about ten years ago, I started working at home, writing my own books for young people.
I love getting the chance to explore subjects I’m passionate about, like music, and making them meaningful for kids. I’m nosy about people, for example, and the Lives of ... series allows me to snoop behind the closed doors of some of my favorite groups of (really strange) people.
This series, by the way, is not so different from a book I made when I was ten--it was called Hair-Do's and People I Know and starred strange girls, boys, nuns, trees, and lots of hair.
Other books I've written reflect some of my other interests--nightmares, how fame affects people, World War II and other angles to American history, the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, little-known communities around the United States, how American states differ from each other. I remain deeply interested in hair. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Womancomes from my admiration for strong women, as does Lives of Extraordinary Women. With Lives of the Presidents, I have been interested in politics ever since I got to stay up late and watch the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960.
I am married to children’s book illustrator Paul Brewer and live in San Diego, California. Visit Cricket Books to read about Paul's "Robert" books with Barbara Seuling. And Paul and I are excited about our first collaboration-- Clip, Clip, Clip: Three Stories about Hair (Holiday House, 2002) and our second How to Trick or Treat in Outer Space.
As a child I thought books were the most important thing in the world, and that perception is actually more intense now. I’m grateful, for so many reasons, to be able to work in a vital and exhilarating field: preserving literacy. One of its benefits is that I can't be fired. Especially for reading too much.
For more information, visit Frequently Asked Questions to read the answers to questions Kathleen Krull's readers most often ask her.
