5
Books that Katy Loves:
King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub
by Don and Audrey Wood
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Walter Had a Best Friend
by Deborah Underwood
and Sergio Ruzzier
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When the Sky Glows
by Nell Cross Beckerman
and David Litchfield
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Each Little Bird that Sings
by Deborah Wiles
(middle-grade)
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A Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson
(middle-grade)
4
Things that Gives Katy the Creeps:
Any snake—big or small, fake or real, dead or alive
Deep water
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Pickle Juice
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The Burger King king
3
Foods that Katy Could
Eat Every Single Day:
A Rice Cake with Peanut Butter
Pizza
Cotton Candy
2
Things that Makes Katy Giggle:
Her dog, Jo Jo
Her dog, Jo Jo (He is SO funny, I had to list him twice!)
1
Thing Katy Probably Shouldn’t Tell You:
She doesn’t like milk.
(She loves cereal though—so she’s known to dip up a bite of cereal and drain off the milk before eating it.)
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By the Numbers
KATY DUFFIELD
The Basics:
I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in (I’ll let you guess the year. Be kind.), and have lived most of my life in Arkansas. I spend my time walking, biking, camping, reading and writing, and playing with my pup Jo Jo. (He’s the Cockapoo on the left. Shown with his cousin Cassie).
A Reader From Waaaay Back:
I’ve always loved to read. In fact, when I was in second grade, I decided that I’d read every single book in the school library. Do you think I succeeded? Well, no. But in my defense, there were LOTS of books in that library! Some of my favorite books when I was young were Katy No-Pocket, written by Emmy Payne and illustrated by H.A. Rey (can’t imagine why), Millions of Cats, written and illustrated by Wanda Gag (sorry Archer. I was a major cat lover in those days), and The Funny Little Woman, written by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent (fun book about a woman who's lost her dumpling!)
Another testament to my reading obsession occurred when I showed my son a picture of me (when I was about 5) and my Sunday School class and I asked him if he could guess which one was me, he said, “That’s easy. You’re the one holding the book.”
Writing Weirdness:
My love of reading transitioned into my love for writing. My first published works appeared in children’s magazines. As a kid, I loved reading quirky stories that included little known facts. I wrote fiction, too, but the love of weirdness led me down the nonfiction path. I wrote about sugar gliders, jellyfish, an albino gorilla, the history of the golf ball, and many other topics. With nonfiction, I could learn and write about whatever interested me! Cool.
Writing—the HARD Part:
From magazines, I transitioned mainly to book writing, both picture books and nonfiction books for older readers. As for my writing process, I need to admit something—my least favorite part of writing is spilling out that very first story draft. For some reason, when the brilliant story that’s in my head comes out on paper, it’s like FIZZLE! SPUTTER! SPLAT! It is NOT AT ALL what I meant to write. How can that be? It’s like a major disconnect. But, no worries….
Writing—the BEST Part:
My favorite part of the writing process comes next. Revision. When I revise, I can take that fizzling, sputtering splat of a mess and turn it into something lovely and fun and sometimes (but not always) pretty darn good. And that makes me pretty darn happy.
