Kathryn Lasky
Kathy Lasky, the Newbery Honor author of more than fifty
fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults,
first realized she could be a writer when she was about
ten years old, and her family was driving at night in
their car with the top down. “The sky looked so interesting
– you couldn’t see the stars because of these wooly clouds.
And I said it looked like a sheepback sky. My mom turned
around and said, ‘Kathryn, you should be a writer.’ When
my mom said that, I thought, “Wow, maybe I will be.”
After college, Kathryn Lasky wrote for magazines and worked as
a teacher. It was while Lasky was teaching that she wrote
her first published book. Following a grandfather and
his grandson on a typical weekend day, the book was called
I Have Four Names for My Grandfather and featured
photographs by Kathryn Lasky’s husband, Christopher Knight.
Since then, she has written a variety of books – from
historical fiction to picture books to nonfiction. For
Scholastic, she has written Beyond the Burning Time,
an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, True North,
an NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People,
Born in the Breezes, Porkenstein and the
Guardians of Ga’Hoole series. She has also contributed
many titles to the Dear America, Royal Diaries, and My
America series. She has received the Washington Post
– Children’s Book Guild Award for her contribution to
children’s nonfiction.
When doing research for a book, Kathryn Lasky usually begins
in the children’s room of the public library. She also
relies on talking to friends who are historians as well
as calling librarians and historical societies. “I love
doing research,” Lasky says. “It’s really fun. It’s
like a treasure hunt.” There is no difference whether
she is writing about a fictional character, such as in
The Journal of Augustus Pelletier: The Lewis and Clark
Expedition, 1804, for the My Name is America series,
or a real character, such as in Elizabeth I: Red Rose
of the House of Tudor, England, 1544, for the Royal
Diaries series. “My responsibility as a writer for authenticity
and accuracy does not vary whether the character is real
or fictional,” states Lasky.
I want young readers to come away with a sense of joy
for life. I want to draw to them into a world where they’re
really going to connect with these characters.
