When I grew up in the 1950s, we were never given writing assignments, and I never dreamed there was such a thing as a living author. I imagined their tombstones with their last names first, like card catalogs in the library:
Baum, L. Frank 1856-1919
I loved stories wherever I found them—in books, on the radio and television, or at the movies. When I was five my mother told me that we were going to see a movie about a big ship that hits an iceberg.
“What’s an iceberg?” I asked.
“It is an ice cube as big as a house.”
I went outside and looked up at our small, square ice-cubed shaped house.
That must be a mighty big ice cube, I thought.
I loved watching “Lassie” on T.V. I imagined that my parakeet, Winky Blue, would become a hero like the courageous collie dog, catching crooks and saving people from drowning. These wild fantasies inspired the Winky Blue series, about Rosie and her pet parakeet, Winky Blue.
Through stories like Heidi and Charlotte's Web, I came to believe that the land of the imagination was a rural one. So naturally, I wanted to live in the country. I had high hopes that my father would wake up one morning and decide to give up his profession and become a farmer. 
This is a picture of my dad. What you do think he was?
That's right, my dad was a scientist! We moved around a lot when I was growing up. The leaving was always sad, but it helped me see my own life as a story, with each new chapter unfolding.
I was not a good student, but when I was in high school, my chemistry teacher told me that he wasn’t worried about my grades because he knew that one day he would have my books on his shelf. I never forgot his prophecy or his faith in me, and when Houghton Mifflin published my first book twenty-five years later, I sent a copy to Mr. Welch and asked him to put it on his shelf.
When I was in my twenties, the hunter's cabin I was living in burned down and I lost all my childhood writings, along with everything else. At first I was discouraged, but gradually I began writing again and in 1986 I broke in with my first book,
Noelle of the Nutcracker. Since then I have written twenty-five books (and a lot more that haven't been published yet!)
I live in Bucks County Pennsylvania with my husband, our daughter and her cat, Mittens. As you can see, Mittens is highly enthusiastic about my writing.