Claire Daniel (1949-) Biography

Born 1949, in Atlanta, GA; Education: University of Georgia, B.S. (education), 1971, M.S. (education), 1977. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Photography, hiking, travel, studying Italian.

Career

Formerly worked as a special-education teacher, editor and staff writer for educational publishers, New York, NY, beginning c. 1989; freelance writer.

Member

MFA Boston.

Honors Awards

Honorable mention, Jane Chambers Award, 2003, for The Last Dance; Festival of Southern Theatre award finalist, for Sawdust in My Shoes.

Writings

The Chick That Wouldn't Hatch, illustrated by Lisa Campbell Ernst, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1999.

(With Deborah Eaton and Carole Osterink) The Great Big Book of Fun Phonics Activities, Scholastic Professional, 1999.

Fossils: Pictures from the Past, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 2000.

Folktales from Ecosystems around the World, illustrated by Dennis Hockerman, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 2003.

Becoming a Citizen, Time-Life Kids (New York, NY), 2004.

The First Voyage around the World, Time-Life Kids (New York, NY), 2004.

Skeletons inside and Out, Celebration Press, 2005.

A Clear View: Biography of Ellen Ochoa, Wright Group, 2006.

Also author of stage and radio plays. Contributor to periodicals, including Boston Globe. Author of commentaries for National Public Radio's Only a Game, 1996, 1998.

Work in Progress

The novels Off the Autostrada and Dancing on the Coping Stones; essays for a literature anthology published by Abbeywood Press, 2006.

Sidelights

Earning her undergraduate and master's degrees in education, Atlanta-born author Claire Daniel began writing in 1989, after leaving her career as a teacher. In addition to over thirty educational books for children, she is also the author of the illustrated picture book The Chick That Wouldn't Hatch, a fun barnyard tale designed for beginning readers. In Daniel's simple story, one of Mother hen's eggs stubbornly refuses to hatch; it is not until the egg rolls out of the nest and all the way across the large farm that the young chick finally emerges. The author's "simple, repetitive text propels children through the lively story," noted Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg, adding that illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst's "clearly defined, delicately colored illustrations" enhance the story with their "expressive visual clues."

Daniel told SATA: "I started writing for children in the classroom. I taught special-ed kids, and we wrote our own plays and performed them. Then I moved to New York and got a job in educational publishing as an in-house writer. I began writing stories for children, and still write them today. I have published over thirty children's books for educational publishers like Rigby, Steck-Vaughn, Modern Curriculum Press, Time-Life for Kids, Macmillan, and the Wright Group.

"I enjoy writing in all mediums—radio, plays, children's books, adult novels, essays, and children's novels. The happiest times in my life are when I'm writing, When one of Mother Hen's eggs go missing, the hunt for chick number six rolls throughout the entire farmyard, in Daniel's engaging The Chick that Wouldn't Hatch. (Illustration by Lisa Campbell Ernst.)traveling, taking walks, or watching the Red Sox play baseball. I also have two dogs who keep me company during the day and drag me out the door to walk whenever they can. That's good! All computer and no play makes a dull writer indeed!"