LARRY DANE BRIMNER
As a writer for young people, my eye is tuned to a child’s world of discovery. From picture books to nonfiction for ‘tweens and teens, my goal is to excite, educate, and entertain.
Larry Dane Brimner arrived on planet Earth in a spaceship that was running low on fuel. It touched down briefly in St. Petersburg, Florida, before lurching and skipping across the North American continent and coming to rest on Kodiak Island, Alaska. After a few years of being raised by polar bears and several fixes to his spacecraft, he set out again, only to plummet to land once more–this time in a grape vineyard and olive orchard near San Diego, California, where a pack of coyotes adopted him. Because coyote packs roam, he attended three elementary schools before he completed third grade. He liked school so much that after college, he decided to teach and has taught at every grade level except kindergarten, second, and third. The last eight years of his 20-year teaching career, he taught at San Diego State University in the College of Education.
Before becoming a teacher and while in college, he began crafting poems, stories, and articles. He liked doing that. He also worked as a busboy, waiter, and ditch digger. He didn’t like doing that. But one day an editor phoned to say he wanted a book Larry had written. Gone now were the days of polar bears and coyotes – at least for the most part – and he soon packed up his bag of teaching tricks to become a full-time author. He still loves visiting with young people in schools across the United States and around the world because he thinks children are the best inventions ever and because, in his heart, he will always be a teacher.
