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Jean Marzollo Born:
  Manchester, Connecticut,
United States Of America

Current Home:
Cold Spring, New York,
United States Of America

Jean Marzollo

Biography

When I was young, I liked to sew, play baseball, and read.
I was drawn to poetry early in life. I loved to read, and one of my favorite books as a child was A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. Also, my mother had several small poetry books on her bookshelf. With their leather covers and gold titles, they were treasures to me. I liked to hold them and peek through the pages.

I SPY
All of the riddles in the I Spy books are written in rhythm and rhyme. Walter Wick, the photographer for the I Spy books, is a visual poet. He makes and photographs the sets for I Spy in his studio in Connecticut. I can't write the riddles ahead of time without restricting his artistic freedom. So I write them while he is constructing his visually stunning sets. I suggest ideas for the pictures and objects that fit the rhyme of the riddles. The process is collaborative. The final riddles are written when the photos are done.

Kids of all ages love I Spy because they like to use, to the fullest extent, their excellent powers of visual discrimination. Children and grown-ups can play on the same playing field; they are all good at I Spy. (Actually sometimes children are better than grown-ups.)

For children under three, I wrote new, simpler rhymes for board books called: I Spy Little Book, I Spy Little Animals, I Spy Little Wheels, I Spy Little Numbers, and coming soon, I Spy Little Christmas. I enjoyed testing these books with toddlers. I also enjoy consulting on the I Spy games and puzzles available from Briarpatch and on the I Spy CD-Roms available from Scholastic.

Verbal Music
Rhyme to me, is verbal music, and many of my picture books are illustrated poems: Ten Cats Have Hats illustrated by David McPhail, Home Sweet Home illustrated by Ashley Wolff, Sun Song illustrated by Laura Regan, Pretend You're a Cat illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, Close Your Eyes illustrated by Susan Jeffers, In 1492 illustrated by Steve Bjorkman, Christmas Cats illustrated by Hans Wilhelm, Do You Know New? illustrated by Mari Takabayashi, and Mama Mama illustrated by Laura Regan.

Different Kinds of Books
I write different kinds of books so that I don't get bored. I am writing a series of science books for beginning readers. The titles so far are: I Am a Leaf, I Am a Rock, I Am a Catepillar, I Am Fire, I Am an Apple, I Am Water, I Am a Seed, and I Am Snow. These books, illustrated by Judith Moffat are Level 1 books in Scholastic's Hello Science Reader program. Coming next: I Am a Star.

Sports
I grew up in Manchester, Connecticut in a family that liked sports, especially the Boston Red Sox. Now I live in New York State so I root, along with my husband and sons, for the Knicks, the Jets, the Mets, and the Yankees. I started writing sports stories when my sons were young. On my own I wrote: Soccer Sam, Soccer Cousins, Cannonball Chris, Pizza Pie Slugger, and Slam Dunk Saturday. Now my sons are old enough to help me write sports books! Together we have written Football Friends, Basketball Buddies, Hockey Hero, and Baseball Brothers.

Visit Jean Marzollo's website!

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