Author a Day: Anna Grossnickle Hines

 January 11

Anna Grossnickle Hines (b. July 13, 1946) knew from the time she was seven that she wanted to make books for children.  Along the way she studied art at San Fernando Valley State College but got little encouragement.  She left college and studied on her own, married, and became the mother to two daughters, and began to write.  She divorced and to support herself she returned to school and became a  teacher. She married again — to a forest ranger.  During the years they lived near the Yosemite National Park the Anna became the mother to her third daughter.  In 1983 her virst book Taste the Raindrops was published. But it was when the family moved to Pennsylvania that Hines renewed her interest in quilting and those quilts became the models for some of her illustrations.  But the break through came when she presented an idea to illustrate a book with miniature quilts that she made.  A book of poems, Piees: A Year in Poems & Quilts  became a landmark book of poetry, winning her the coveted 2002 Lee Bennett Hopkins Award or Children's Poetry.
Anna Grossnickle Hines and her husband, Gary Hines, both continue to write and now live in Gualala, California, a rustic area north of San Francisco near the redwood forest.

Learn more about her books, her illustrative methods, and her inspiration in the resources listed below.

 

 

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Resources: 

Anna Grossnickle Hines (WEB) www.aghines.com/

Anna Grossnickle Hines (BLOG) http://www.aghines.blogspot.com/ ‎

McElmeel, Sharron L.  Children's Authors and Illustrators too Good to Miss.  ABC/CLIO/Libraries Unlimited, 2004;  pages 119-123.

Sharron L. McElmeel Papers, University of Iowa's Special Collections, Iowa City, Iowa.

www.mcbookwords.com
for author visits