E.L. Konigsburg was born on February 10, 1930, in New York City, but grew up in small Pennsylvania mill towns. She was the first in her family to attend college. She became a chemist at Carnegie Mellon University, went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, then taught science at a private girls' school. "I began to suspect that chemistry was not my field . . . I became more interested in what was going on inside them (students) than what was going on inside the test tubes."
She waited until all three of her kids were in school before she started writing children's books. She wrote in the mornings and read her work to them when they came home for lunch.
In 1968 she made children's book award history (snicker); her second book (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) won the Newbery Medal, and her first book (Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth)won the Newbery Honor (runner-up). She was also the illustrator of both books.
E is for Elaine. L is for Loble.
Quotes:
"Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you."
"I used to read in the bathroom a lot. It was the only room in our house that had a lock on the door, and I could run water in the tub to muffle the sounds of my sobbing over Rhett Butler's leaving Scarlett. Reading was tolerated in my house, but it wasn't sanctioned like dusting furniture or baking cookies."
"I owe children a good story."
Books:
About the B'Nai Bagels
Altogether, One at a Time
Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's
The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper
Father's Arcane Daughter
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler (1968 Newbery winner)
George (out of print)
Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (1971 Newbery honor winner)
Journey to an 800 Number
The Mask Beneath the Face : Reading About and With, Writing About and for Children
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors
Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions
The Second Mrs. Giaconda
Silent to the Bone
T-Backs, T-Shirts, Coat, and Suit
Talk Talk : A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-Ups
Throwing Shadows
Up from Jericho Tel
The View from Saturday (1997 Newbery winner)
thanks to
http://teacher.scholastic.com/authorsandbooks/authors/konigs/bio.htm
http://www.ala.org/alsc/konigs.html
http://php.iupui.edu/~awinslow/
and as always
www.amazon.com
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