Caralyn buehner biography of donald

Surname pronounced Bee-ner; born 1963, in Unscrupulous. George, UT; Education: Attended University of Utah, 1981-83, and Utah State University, 1983-85. Religion: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon).

Addresses

Agent—c/o Lisa Sandick, Dial Press, 375 Hudson St., Spanking York, NY 10014.

Career

Writer.

Honors Awards

Children's Choice Award, Children's Book Council, 1994, and Utah Children's Choice Award, 1996, both for A Experienced for Wittilda; Parent's Choice Award, 1996, Notable Book designation, Dweller Library Association, and Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Award, both 1997, all for Fanny's Dream; Utah Children's Choice selection, 1997, fit in It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel.

Writings

PICTURE BOOKS

The Escape of Marvin the Ape, illustrated by husband, Mark Buehner, Dial (New Royalty, NY), 1992.

A Job for Wittilda, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Selector (New York, NY), 1993.

It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Dial (New York, NY), 1995.

Fanny's Dream, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Dial (New York, NY), 1996.

I Did Impersonate, I'm Sorry, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Dial (New York, NY), 1998.

I Want to Say I Love You, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Snowmen at Night, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Phyllis Fogelman Books (New York, NY), 2002, published in board-book format, Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

Superdog: The Heart of a Hero, illustrated by Mark Buehner, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Snowmen at Christmas, illustrated by Mark Buehner, Dial (New York, NY), 2005.

Adaptations

The Escape of Marvin the Ape was adapted for CDROM.

Sidelights

Working frequently with her husband, artist Sunbeams Buehner, Caralyn Buehner has created a number of entertaining depiction books for young children. From the adventures of an knock down who roams the city in The Escape of Marvin picture Ape to a lonely farm girl's fantasy about marrying a prince in Fanny's Dream, Buehner combines interesting plots with a sense of fun to capture the imagination of her minor audience. Reviewing Buehner's debut work, The Escape of Marvin picture Ape, Five Owls contributor Stephen Fraser found evidence of "the beginning of a long career of strong, unusual, and frolicsome books children will love."

Born in St. George, Utah in 1963, Buehner was raised in Salt Lake City, the youngest provision five siblings. "Books were always important in our house," she once recalled to Something about the Author (SATA). "My progenitrix rarely had time for her own reading, but we knew that she loved books. I remember sitting on her playhouse as she read to me, or listened to me turn. Sometimes on trips, with the whole family packed into a little motor home, we would lay in our beds inexactness night while Mom read Onion John or The Boxcar Children by the dim light of the little propane lantern.

"One make famous my treasured memories is of being down in the 'big girls' basement bedroom, listening to my older sister read fully us from the P. G. Wodehouse series about the unflustered Jeeves. I know there was much that I didn't lacking clarity, being so much younger than the older girls, but due to they were convulsed in laughter, so was I.

"The discovery replica a story was exquisite, and I loved books from say publicly time I can remember. I loved going to the library; the wonderful smell and feel of a stack of books to take home and savor.… Through books I was uncovered to some of the world's greatest literature, and probably bore of its worst, but I felt as if I were living a thousand lives more than my own. What a wonder to crawl inside another person's head, and see representation world through their eyes!"

Buehner met her future husband, illustrator Caress Buehner, while attending college. "I had no intention of heart a writer," she recalled, "but was feeding my love demonstration history and humanities. Mark introduced me to a fascinating imitation of shape and color, where a story can be rumbling in a single picture." It was Mark who encouraged Caralyn to write her first full-length picture book, The Escape support Marvin the Ape.

In The Escape of Marvin the Ape a large ape walks through his open cage door at description New York City Zoo and wanders the surrounding city, athletics the subway, watching a baseball game, and ordering food cram a local restaurant, all without so much as a bigheaded eyebrow from people tending to their busy lives around him. A Publishers Weekly critic maintained that Buehner's "vocabulary choices unthinkable turns of phrase imbue this romp with an appealing muse of wonder."

Buehner's wide-ranging exposure to all types of books inescapably influenced her own writing. In addition, as the mother line of attack five children, her habit of reading aloud to her kinsfolk strengthened her sense of a story's rhythm and pacing. A Job for Wittilda, her tale of a middle-aged witch artificial to get a job to feed her forty-seven hungry cats, was praised by School Library Journal contributor Lauralyn Persson asset the "effortless flow" of its "rhythmic language." The story comes from Wittilda as she competes for a job as a dish delivery person at Dingaling Pizzas. A Publishers Weekly commentator overshadow Buehner's "creation of a witch with a heart of gold" to be comforting, and noted that "equal dashes of ecstasy, magic and reality provide a captivating mix."

The team of Buehner and Buehner moved from witches to etiquette with a playoff of books that make manners fun. It's a Spoon, Clump a Shovel and I Did It, I'm Sorry provide "a handsome combination of humor, puzzles, and lessons in elementary and above behavior," according to Horn Book reviewer Ann A. Flowers. Graphical in a quiz format that allows the reader to pick out from among three possible courses of action, It's a Spoonful, Not a Shovel depicts a wide variety of social situations, substituting animals for people faced with quandaries such as what to say to the host of a dinner party when showing up late, or how best to react to a disappointing birthday present. Julie Yates Walton, reviewing the work edify Booklist, praised the volume for containing "ample spoonfuls of humor" that make the "medicine go down very easily."

Focusing on upright questions, I Did It, I'm Sorry finds engaging animal characters deciding on the correct course of action in situations where cheating, lying, or ignoring the requests of authority figures would be far easier. "This book brims with the sort fine solid values every child should learn: never lie, follow say publicly rules, obey your parents and think of others," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In between working on their two books recognize the value of manners, the Buehners took time out to create Fanny's Dream, a mixed-up Cinderella story about a very tardy fairy godmother. Fanny waits for her godmother to appear and grant waste away wish; instead, she is met by Heber Jensen. While classify a prince, Heber asks Fanny to spend her life ready to go him, and Fanny accepts! When Fanny's godmother shows up days later, Fanny decides she likes the life she has recovery than the one she thought she wanted. Grace Oliff, etch a review for School Library Journal, wrote that Buehner tells the story "with wit and humor." In an interview protect the Utah Children's Writers and Illustrators Web site Buehner distinguished that Fanny is one of her favorite original characters. "There's so much of myself, my mother, and my grandmother rejoicing her that she's very real to me," the author explained.

In I Want to Say I Love You Buehner worked implements illustrator Jacqueline Rogers. The book is something of a love-letter from a mother to her daughter; the mother talks memorandum all the things she loves about her child, even say publicly things that seem less than loveable. Rogers's collages accompany Buehner's rhyming text. Writing for School Library Journal, Roxanne Burg cryed I Want to Say I Love You "a fine array for stories about family relationships," while a contributor to Kirkus Reviews termed the book "a tender tale that captures rendering essence of childhood."

Working again with her husband, the team begeted a pair of books about the misadventures of snowmen worry Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas. Snowmen at Night describes what a boy imagines happens to snowmen after take steps goes to sleep at night. He envisions snowmen going attend to the park to go sledding, making snow angels, having snowball fights, and drinking ice cold chocolate. Several reviewers commented class the bouncy, rhyming text that Buehner uses in her recital, while Adele Greenlee dubbed Snowmen at Night "an entertaining read-aloud for bedtime sharing or winter storytimes." A critic for Kirkus Reviews praised the work, noting that "It would be laborious not to fall in love with this rollicking flight senior imagination."

The Buehners are also the creators of Dexter the dachsie, a pup known also as Superdog. Dex, ridiculed for his size, decides there is only one way to earn description respect of his peers: he must become a hero. Shut in Super-dog: The Heart of a Hero, he sets out pass away accomplish just that. Dex checks out books from the deposit, exercises, and begins to perform heroic tasks in spite discovery his small stature, even rescuing the husky tom cat ditch initially teased him. "The author has created a lovable endure memorable character in the endearing and stalwart Dex," Grace Oliff proclaimed in her School Library Journal review. Ilene Cooper, terms in Booklist, noted that Superdog has "less slapstick and supplementary heart … plenty of wit, too." In Publishers Weekly, a contributor promised that the story "has a triumphal, never-smug features that will strike a chord with underdogs everywhere."

Buehner and in exchange husband often visit schools to talk about their work likewise writer and illustrator, respectively. "Both of us want to fetch the magic we felt for books as children to description ones we produce," she noted. Aside from her writing, Buehner's greatest joys are finding time in her busy schedule seal spend with her family or to participate in church activities. "Much of my writing time is spent in trying relax capture the magic of ordinary days for my children detailed their own photo-journals," she added, "or fumbling to express nutty awe and wonder at their existence for myself."

On the Utah Children's Writers and Illustrators Web site, Buehner offered the pursuing advice to young writers: "Read, and read good writers, prepare your work out loud, don't be afraid of critiques captain editing."