Children’s Book Author and Illustrator
Welcome to my on-line home, I hope you can stay for a bit and look around. I am a retired Kindergarten and Preschool teacher who has loved picture books since I was a child. My mother took my sister and me to story time at our library back when things like that were much less common. She and my dad were readers, read to us, and kept us supplied with reading material. I grew up outside Pittsburgh with an older brother and younger sister. We lived in a neighborhood with lots of other kids and had numerous pets. I attended Bowling Green State University (Ohio) and earned a masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education. And I’m still here. This college town is an interesting place to live with the variety of people and activities available. After college I rented a little house on a farm with sheep; what great neighbors! With sheep at my doorstep, I learned to spin and dye wool, had learned to knit in Girl Scouts and have enjoyed those activities most of my adult life. They say, “Write what you know”, so I did. “Harry Had a Little Ram” is about a child who raises a lamb; processes the wool with her parents and uses it for a winter hat. I had been using a simpler version of it for a Fabric Science Unit. I taught Head Start, Kindergarten and eventually was hired as Administrator and Head Teacher at B.G.S.U.’s Lab Preschool. That was an intense job but I loved it and the diversity of students (big and little) that a university lab school attracts (international, gifted, ESL, special needs, etc.). After I married, we moved to a bigger house and even though there are no sheep, I still enjoy spinning, knitting and am a member of the Black Swamp Spinner’s Guild and a knitting circle.
I retired after 40 years of teaching and now have time to volunteer as a docent at the Mazza Museum, which is the first and largest museum to showcase the original artwork from picture book illustrators. (If you don’t know it, you can visit at mazzamuseum.org) I made retirement look so good my husband joined me the following year and we keep busy. We have two granddaughters a half hour away, we always have a cat or two, we grow flower and vegetable gardens every summer, love to travel and do a few German language lessons every day. We’re not totally proficient but have a basic understanding of the necessities. And of course I write and illustrate!
About the book
“Harry Had a Little Ram” is about a child, her lamb and their family’s adventure through the process of turning the lamb’s wool into a warm winter hat. Harry doesn’t understand how the lamb’s coat can be her hat but she will. I originally wrote the story in rhyming 4-line stanzas (500 words) but was told rhyming books are “out of style” (how can that be???). So I rewrote it in prose (800 words). It is available in either format. I included back matter pages with extra information on sheep and the fleece-to-fiber process, activities that I used in my science curriculum, and a simple knitting pattern for a child’s winter hat. I wrote this book because I know that children have some understanding of cows giving milk and chickens laying eggs, but no understanding of making clothing from a sheep, which is an abstract concept that some adults don’t understand. (In two of my book critiques, the lamb’s welfare was questioned. Shearing a sheep is like your getting a haircut, it doesn’t hurt and it grows back. It is cruel NOT to shear a sheep as they have been bred for thousands of years to be shorn).
About the Illustrations
For my illustrations I use cut paper, adding watercolor paints and markers where needed. First I make a sketch, adjust it to the size I want, cut it into pattern pieces and then cut those out of the final papers. I can arrange and rearrange the pieces until it looks right. I make some papers at home with an old blender, recycled paper and small-framed screens. I like to choose from lots of different kinds of paper; cardboard egg cartons, tissue paper, crepe paper, ribbon etc. There is a wonderful product called “Restickable Glue Stick” (think Post-It notes) which allows me to stick a paper piece down but move it later if necessary. I also make (greeting) cards, hand bound books, pincushions and applique from wool felt and other sewn, quilted, felted, knit fabric items.
See my Instagram account under vicki_knauerhase