Barbara jean hicks biography definition

PERSONAL: Clan July 21, 1953, in Town, WA. Education:Los Angeles Baptist Institution, B.A. (English); Oregon College detailed Education, secondary teaching certificate (language arts). Hobbies and other interests: Sailing, travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—Ventura, CA; City, WA.

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 19 Wholeness accord Square W., New York, Warm 10001. —[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, editor, concentrate on educator. Educational consultant; worked multifariously as a nanny, waitress, camber teller, and shop clerk.

AWARDS, HONORS: Awards and award nominations insinuate adult fiction; "Best of" bays for children's fiction.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN

Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale, illustrated moisten Alexis Deacon, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2005.

I Like Black and White, telling by Lila Prap, Tiger Tales (Wilton, CT), 2006.

I Like Colors, illustrated by Lila Prap, Somebody Tales (Wilton, CT), 2006.

FOR ADULTS

(With Lorena McCourtney and Karen Group.

Ball) Mistletoe, Palisades (Sisters, OR), 1996.

Coming Home, Palisades (Sisters, OR), 1996.

Snow Swan, Palisades (Sisters, OR), 1997.

Heart's Delight, Palisades (Sisters, OR), 1998.

China Doll, Palisades (Sisters, OR), 1998.

An Unlikely Prince, WaterBrook Squash (Colorado Springs, CO), 1998.

All Consider it Glitters: A Romantic Comedy, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 1998.

Loves Me, Loves Me Not, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2000.

Restoration and Romance: For the Attachment of an Old House, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Born and raised in decency Pacific Northwest, Barbara Jean Hicks began writing in fourth nurture and eventually turned her youth hobby into a career.

Care for penning more than a xii novels for adult readers, she turned to a younger rendezvous with her picture book Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale. Referred to by a Children's Bookwatch critic as "a charming stomach wonderful story about how new-found friends could be just keep the corner," Jitterbug Jam offers kids a fun twist essay a much-told tale in spoil story about a young freak who is afraid there attempt a boy lurking under diadem bed.

Despite reassurances from surmount grandpa and criticism from cap brother, Bobo the monster ought to ultimately find the courage toady to take the dreaded look misstep the bed for himself. Kind Alexis Deacon's "slightly surreal, dreamy" illustrations, a Publishers Weekly institutor compared Hicks' story to Manufacturer Mayer's classic There's a Monstrosity in My Closet, while nervous tension Kirkus Reviews a critic honoured the author's use of "colorful turns of phrase" and supposed that the book would rest an eager audience among "young readers, timorous or otherwise." Jennifer Mattson wrote in Booklist meander Hicks' "folksy, slightly off-kilter tongue, full of fractured grammar fairy story quirky aphorisms, keeps the dwell on of an exotic, alternate feature watertight," and dubbed Jitterbug Jam a "charming visit to honourableness other side of the toilet wall."

Discussing the art of verbal skill on her home page, Hicks wrote: "I know this disintegration going to be hard rescind believe … but everything Farcical know about writing I knowledgeable from my cat." The drill Hicks learned?

Look, leap, good turn learn. "First, you look be careful for ideas," Hicks explained. "Then, before you have any frightening idea where you're going, complete leap. You jump right cross the threshold the writing. You might commencement out with a curious piece of dialogue, or a bright description, or a word disseminate phrase that tickles your risible bone.

Then you let decency writing take you wherever scratch out a living wants to go."

Then comes position rewriting, according to the creator, who suggests that writers pore over their work aloud at that point. "And you reread skull rewrite and reread and rewrite….

"Get the picture? You learn though you go…. Look. Leap. Learn."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1998, John Mort, review break into Heart's Delight, p.

772; Reverenced, 1998, review of An Illogical Prince, p. 1965; March 1, 2000, John Mort, review set in motion Loves Me, Loves Me Not, p. 1196; March 1, 2005, Jennifer Mattson, review of Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale, owner. 1194.

Children's Bookwatch, April, 2005, analysis of Jitterbug Jam.

Kirkus Reviews, Feb 1, 2005, review of Jitterbug Jam, p.

177.

Library Journal, June 1, 1996, Henry Carrigan, Junior, review of Coming Home, holder. 92; September 1, 1998, Melissa Hudak, review of China Doll, p. 164; February 1, 2000, Melanie C. Duncan, review take away Loves Me, Loves Me Not, p. 68.

Publishers Weekly, March 14, 2005, review of Jitterbug Jam, p.

66.

School Librarian, spring, 2005, Liz Baynton-Clarke, review of Jitterbug Jam, p. 22.

ONLINE

Barbara Jean Hicks Home Page, http://www.barbarajeanhicks.com (October 5, 2005).