Candace Fleming's Blog

[image error]Eric and I are honored that Bulldozer’s Big Day was selected to be distributed to at-risk children throughout Romania. Translated into Romanian, the book takes on a different significance in its new role as ambassador for education.

Here’s the story, presented as Leslie Hawke wrote it, for those of you who might like to found a program like this, which is highly successful!

“In 2004, Peace Corps volunteer Leslie Hawke and Romanian educator Maria Gheorghiu co-founded Asociatia OvidiuRo, a non-...

[image error]Strongheart: Wonder Dog of the Silver Screen is all about the dog, the training, and the movie-making. It’s also about the strong bond that is developed between animal and trainer. We wondered if training animals for movies has changed since the 1920s when the Strongheart movies were filmed.

We contacted a highly respected animal trainer, Teresa Ann Miller, who is known internationally as the trainer of Rhett Butler, who portrayed Inspector Rex in the series by that name, shown from 1994 to 2...

Bulldozer Helps Out came about, in part, because the characters from Bulldozer’s Big Day stayed with me; they charmed me. I’d gotten to know them in the first book, and felt there were more adventures to be told. I really wanted to find out what would happen next in Bulldozer’s life.

Sequels, however, are always hard because they have to be better than the first book, or at least different enough to distinguish themselves. And I certainly didn’t want to repeat myself.

Then I hit upon the idea...

Go Sleep in Your Own Bed! Candace Fleming and Lori Nichols. Schwartz & Wade, 2017.

A few years ago, I challenged myself to write a bedtime story.

But where to start?

The answer was obvious: where most good stories start… at home.

In the summer of 1974, my father was diagnosed with cancer and my twelve-year old world flipped. Summer days became sick days.

I found relief at my friend Lynda’s. Her parents owned a small farm in Central Illinois, and it was to their weathered, white farmhouse surr...

Eric Rohmann and I have just completed a nonfiction picture book for Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook (Summer, 2016) titled Giant Squid. I confess I came on board late in this project. Eric had already sketched out the illustrations. In fact, he had an entire wordless dummy when he invited me to write some accompanying text. This definitely felt like a case of putting the cart before the horse. But I loved the challenge. What did I come up with? Here’s a sampling from the book’s beginning. Wha...

I’ve been working a lot with my partner, Eric Rohmann, lately. A few years ago, we came out with our first collaboration, Oh, No! Truth be told, we were a little worried about working together at first. Would we squabble? Try to impose our artistic vision?

As it turned out, it wasn’t terribly different from my usual process of working with an illustrator. I wrote a story, and he created illustrations for it. The best part was watching that magical process. Every day I’d head up to his studio...

I’ve been working a lot with my partner, Eric Rohmann, lately. A few years ago, we came out with our first collaboration, Oh, No! Truth be told, we were a little worried about working together at first. Would we squabble? Try to impose our artistic vision? As it turned out, it wasn’t terribly different from my usual process of working with an illustrator. I wrote a story, and he created illustrations for it. The best part was watching that magical process. Every day I’d head up to his studio...

Here’s a story I didn’t tell about that first attempt at flying around the world:

When the Electra splashed through the puddles of the Oakland, California airport’s runaway and lifted into the air on March 17, 1937, Amelia Earhart believed she was on her way to Howland Island. Sure, she had to stop in Honolulu first. But then she planned to wing her across the 2,556 mile to Howland. Already the Coast Guard cutter, Duane, waited in the waters offshore the island while construction crews scramb...

May 11, 1887

Outside the London arena, William F. Cody sat astride his milk-white stallion, Charlie, and inspected his show’s performers. He had brought his entire outfit—two-hundred and eighteen performers, one-hundred and eighty horses, eighteen buffalo, ten elk, five wild Texas steers, four donkeys, two deer and a couple of bears, not to mention a stagecoach, a replica log cabin, canvas scenery, wagons, thirty-six brass instruments, rifles, saddles, and more bullets than a man could count—...

Years ago, I reluctantly planted a vegetable garden. I wasn’t especially compelled to dig around in the dirt, but my then-first grader desperately wanted to grow veggies. So I did what all good mothers do, I initiated a bonding, life-enriching experience with my child. Of course, I got stuck doing it all by myself once the kid lost interest (which was about two hours into the project).

So there I am planting lettuce, green beans, pumpkins, onions. And strangely, I began feeling proud about those...