Daniel, Claire 1949-

views updated

DANIEL, Claire 1949-

PERSONAL: Born May 31, 1949, in Atlanta, GA; daughter of Harold Turner, Sr. (a superintendent of schools) and Mary Rowan (a homemaker) Daniel. Education: University of Georgia, B.S. (education), 1971, M.S. (education), 1977. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Photography, hiking, travel, studying Italian.

ADDRESSES: Home—17 Peters St., No. 3, Cambridge, MA 02139. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Formerly worked as a special-education teacher, editor and staff writer for educational publishers, New York, NY, beginning c. 1989; freelance writer.

MEMBER: MFA Boston.

AWARDS, HONORS: Honorable mention, Jane Chambers Award, 2003, for The Last Dance; Festival of Southern Theatre award finalist, for Sawdust in My Shoes.

WRITINGS:

The Chick That Wouldn't Hatch, illustrated by Lisa Campbell Ernst, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1999.

(With Deborah Eaton and Carole Osterink) The Great Big Book of Fun Phonics Activities, Scholastic Professional, 1999.

Fossils: Pictures from the Past, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 2000.

Folktales from Ecosystems around the World, illustrated by Dennis Hockerman, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 2003.

Becoming a Citizen, Time-Life Kids (New York, NY), 2004.

The First Voyage around the World, Time-Life Kids (New York, NY), 2004.

Skeletons inside and Out, Celebration Press, 2005.

A Clear View: Biography of Ellen Ochoa, Wright Group, 2006.

Also author of stage and radio plays. Contributor to periodicals, including Boston Globe. Author of commentaries for National Public Radio's Only a Game, 1996, 1998.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The novels Off the Autostrada and Dancing on the Coping Stones; essays for a literature anthology published by Abbeywood Press, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Earning her undergraduate and master's degrees in education, Atlanta-born author Claire Daniel began writing in 1989, after leaving her career as a teacher. In addition to over thirty educational books for children, she is also the author of the illustrated picture book The Chick That Wouldn't Hatch, a fun barnyard tale designed for beginning readers. In Daniel's simple story, one of Mother hen's eggs stubbornly refuses to hatch; it is not until the egg rolls out of the nest and all the way across the large farm that the young chick finally emerges. The author's "simple, repetitive text propels children through the lively story," noted Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg, adding that illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst's "clearly defined, delicately colored illustrations" enhance the story with their "expressive visual clues."

Daniel once commented: "I started writing for children in the classroom. I taught special-ed kids, and we wrote our own plays and performed them. Then I moved to New York and got a job in educational publishing as an in-house writer. I began writing stories for children, and still write them today. I have published over thirty children's books for educational publishers like Rigby, Steck-Vaughn, Modern Curriculum Press, Time-Life for Kids, Macmillan, and the Wright Group.

"I enjoy writing in all mediums—radio, plays, children's books, adult novels, essays, and children's novels. The happiest times in my life are when I'm writing, traveling, taking walks, or watching the Red Sox play baseball. I also have two dogs who keep me company during the day and drag me out the door to walk whenever they can. That's good! All computer and no play makes a dull writer indeed!"