Day, Karen

Personal

Married; children: three. Education: indiana University, B.A. (English and journalism); DePaul University, M.A. (English literature); graduate study at New York University.

Addresses

Home—MA.

Career

Author. Worked as a college writing instructor at New York University; worked variously as a reporter and tennis teacher.

Writings

Tall Tales, Wendy Lamb Books (New York, NY), 2007.

No Cream Puffs, Wendy Lamb Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

In an online interview for Class of 2k7, Massachusetts-based writer Karen Day admitted: "Ever since I was young, writing was the best way I knew to calm and make sense of the chaos and anxiety and questions I felt inside." Day began writing at age nine when her elementary school teacher assigned her to write a story based on a photograph taken from a magazine. Six years later she completed her first 200-page novel, which she sent to publishing houses without any success. Day continued to write for various newspapers and magazines throughout her college career and into her teaching days at New York University. Her first novel, Tall Tales, was published in 2007.

Tall Tales centers on a twelve-year-old girl who struggles with a father who is an abusive alcoholic. Meg Summers finds herself frequently adjusting to new schools because her unstable father is constantly forced to change jobs. In her new school in Lakehaven, Indiana, Meg is determined to make a best friend, and she is consequently delighted when Grace Bennett befriends her. Meg initially finds herself making up outrageous stories in an attempt to cover up her father's ad-

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diction, but she eventually realizes that she can reveal to Grace the reality of her life.

The authenticity and optimism embodied in Day's first novel caught the attention of several critics. In School Library Journal Maria D. Larch commented that, "although there is no fairy-tale ending, Tall Tales "is realistic and hopeful." Likewise, a Kirkus Reviews critic described Tall Tales as "realistic, with an auspicious ending."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of Tall Tales, p. 45.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July-August, 2007, Deborah Stevenson, review of Tall Tales, p. 461.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2007, review of Tall Tales.

Publishers Weekly, May 14, 2007, review of Tall Tales, p. 54.

School Library Journal, June, 2007, D. Maria LaRocco, review of Tall Tales, p. 142.

ONLINE

Class of 2k7 Web site,http://classof2k7.com/ (February 6, 2008), "Karen Day."

Karen Day Home Page,http://www.klday.com/ (February 6, 2008).