Articles: Authors and Illustrators: Anna Grossnickle Hines
Anna Grossnickle Hines clearly adores her family and enjoys young children. A few years ago, when this already well-established author and illustrator decided to put together her first book of poems written for children, she came up with an undeniably unique way to illustrate it. She taught herself to hand-sew quilts using several different techniques. From start to finish, it took more than 5 years of ingenuity, patience, and a lot of convincing of her publisher, but the result was a tremendous accomplishment in the form of Pieces: a Year in Poems & Quilts (2001). This beautifully illustrated book was soon followed by Whistling (2003) and Winter Lights (2006).
Anna Grossnickle Hines was the eldest of 7 children and decided early that she wanted to, as she says, "make books" for children when she grew up. Throughout her childhood she drew pictures and wrote stories, but when she got to college, her teachers encouraged her to take a different path, because they did not want her to 'throw away' her talent. However, she did not allow that to discourage her from following her dream. When she was 28, she started submitting her stories to publishers. At the age of 35, on her second marriage and now the mother of three children, she finally sold her first book (it was published two years later).
She has added more than 50 picture books to her credit since her first book, Taste the Raindrops, was published in 1983. Mrs. Hines has a gift for capturing the wonder of the world from a child’s perspective. Suitably, she has received dozens of accolades in recognition of her work.
Read what Anna Grossnickle Hines has to say in her own words (and much, much more) on her website.
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