Ann Love (1947–) Biography

(Kathleen Ann Love)

Personal

Born 1947, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Ethnicity: "Anglo." Education: University of Toronto, B.A. 1969, M.A., 1970, B.Ed., 1991. Politics: "Green." Religion: Anglican. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, travel, natural history.

Addresses

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Ticknor & Fields, 215 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10003.

Career

Children's author, 1990–. Pollution Probe, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founder and education coordinator, 1969–72; Stroke (journal of American Heart Association), London, Ontario, and Dallas, TX, managing editor, 1980–86; teacher in Carcross, Yukon, Canada, 1972–75; teacher and librarian in York Region, Ontario, 1991–2003.

Member

Writer's Union of Canada, Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers.

Honors Awards

Notable Canadian nonfiction title citation, Canadian Library Association, and Information Book Award shortlist, Children's Literature Roundtable of Canada, both 1994, both for The Kids' Cottage Book; Silver Birch Award shortlist, Ontario Library Association, and Infor-Ann Lovemation Book Award shortlist, both 1997, and Red Cedar Book Award shortlist, 1998–99, all for The Kids' Campfire Book; Gold Star Award, Neighborhood Toy Stores of Canada Association, 2001, for Kids and Grandparents: An Activity Book; Silver Birch Award shortlist, Norma Fleck Award shortlist, and Honor Book designation, Society of School Librarians, all 2001, and Hackmatack Children's Choice Award shortlist, 2002, all for The Kids' Book of the Far North; Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2004, for Cool Woods; Top Books of 2005 citation, Pennsylvania Libraries, for Snow Amazing and The Kid's Book of the Night Sky.

Writings

Taking Control, Trillium Press (Brisbane, CA), 1990.

(With sister, Jane Drake) Take Action: An Environmental Book for Kids, illustrated by Pat Cupples, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1992.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Cottage Book, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1993, published as The Kids' Summer Handbook, Ticknor & Fields (New York, NY), 1994, revised as The Kids' Cottage Memory Book, 2000.

Grizzly Dance (adult fiction), Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Campfire Book, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1998.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Summer Games Book, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1998.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Guide to the Millennium, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1998.

(With Jane Drake) Forestry ("America at Work" series), Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1998.

(With Jane Drake) Farming ("America at Work" series), Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1998.

(With Jane Drake) Fishing ("America at Work" series), Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1999.

(With Jane Drake) Mining ("America at Work" series), Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1999.

(With Jane Drake) My Grandmother and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1999.

(With Jane Drake) My Grandfather and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 1999.

(With Jane Drake) My Baby Brother and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) My Baby Sister and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) My Mother and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) My Father and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) Kids and Grandparents: An Activity Book, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Book of the Far North, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2000.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Winter Handbook, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2001.

(With Jane Drake) My Vacation Place: A Memory Book, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2001.

(With Jane Drake) My Best Friend and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2001.

(With Jane Drake) My Family and Me: A Memory Scrapbook for Kids, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2002.

(With Jane Drake) Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest, illustrated by Andrew Kiss, Tundra (Plattsburg, NY), 2003.

(With Jane Drake) Snow Amazing: Cool Facts and Warm Tales, illustrated by Mark Thurman, Tundra (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

(With Jane Drake) The Kids' Book of the Night Sky, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2004.

(With Jane Drake) Trash Action: A Fresh Look at Garbage, illustrated by Mark Thurman, Tundra (Plattsburg, NY), 2006.

Work in Progress

Sweet! The Delicious Story of Candy, for Tundra, 2007; Alien Invaders, a book on invasive species for Tundra, still in research stages.

Sidelights

A former teacher and librarian, Ann Love is the writer of nonfiction titles about the environment that are geared for young readers. With sister and coauthor Jane Drake, Love has introduced topics involving climate, forests, astronomy, and environmentalism that are relevant to young readers in the United States as well as in Love's native Canada. With Drake, Love has also produced titles on occupations and a series of scrapbooks for young people. According to a contributor to Love's home page, she and her sister "have shared a lifelong love of the outdoors enjoying everything from snow shoeing, to camping, bird watching, tree planting and photography. They get along magnificently, except on the tennis court."

The Kids' Cottage Book, published in the United States as The Kids' Summer Handbook, was the first big success for Love and Drake. The book is full of activities, games, recipes, and crafts for the beach, landside, rainy days, and after dark. A companion book, My Vacation Place: A Memory Book, is a fill-it-in scrapbook that includes pockets, picture frames, and spaces for drawing and sketching. Gillian Richardson, writing in Resource Links, noted that "an open-ended, creativity-oriented style gives this book a wide range in age appeal," and concluded: "Don't leave for the cottage without at least one copy." Love and Drake, while publishing other activity books and nonfiction titles, have continued producing similar fill-in scrapbooks designed for kids, many of these focusing on relationships between members of the family. Rosemary Anderson commented in Resource Links that My Family and Me, a scrapbook that encompasses a child's relationship with all the members of his or her family, is "colourful, attractive, and professional looking."

Love and Drake's activity books have also been acclaimed; The Kids' Campfire Book was shortlisted for the Silver Birch award and two other honors. Along with The Kids' Summer Games Book, The Kids' Campfire Book provides a wealth of summer activities, while The Kids' Winter Handbook provides "interesting alternatives to holiday boredom or too much TV," according to School Library Journal contributor Laurie Edwards.

All of Love and Drake's nonfiction titles focus on the natural world. The Kids' Book of the Far North introduces readers to the Arctic landscape and climate, as well as the cultures of the people who live in the far north. Facts are accompanied by short folk tales and trivia tidbits, resulting in a work that John Peters called a "sweeping but not superficial overview" in his Booklist review. A Resource Links reviewer cited the "combination of facts, stories, folktales, timelines, and illustrations" present in the book, and School Library Journal contributor Sue Sherif considered The Kids' Book of the Far North "an up-to-date, accessible overview."

Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest includes additional information about this part of the world, focusing on the wooded regions of northernmost North America, Siberia, and Europe. A Children's Bookwatch reviewer noted that the book includes not only "natural history, but history, folklore, and plants as well." The Kids' Book of the Night Sky combines some of the same elements, placing folktales about constellations between facts about astronomy. Also included are directions and tips for young readers searching for constellations. "The presentation is accessible and enjoyable," commented a reviewer for Science News. Peg Glisson, writing in School Library Journal, commented on the "lively combination of clearly written text, myths and legends, jokes, and activities" found in the title, while Grace Sheppard commented in Resource Links that the book provides readers with "a thorough and appealing look at a dark subject that has long fascinated humans." Sheppard concluded that Love and Drake's book "is packed with lots and lots of information on a wide variety of celestial topics."

In Snow Amazing: Cool Facts and Warm Tales the authors again combine folklore and facts in a "super-sized snow celebration," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who noted that the authors "include plenty of odd facts." Patricia Manning commented in School Library Journal that the sisters' "conversational text presents the natural history and the lore of snow and the creatures that live in it." Love and Drake include words in the Kovakmiut language for different types of snow, as well as information about the Ice Age, glaciers, and other snow-related subjects. Booklist contributor Ed Sullivan considered the book an "enthusiastic hodgepodge of information and stories."

"I grew up in a family in which we savored storytelling and nature," Love once told SATA. "My mother always One of several nature books written with sister, Jane Drake, Love's Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest introduces children to the northern hemisphere's boreal forest environment. (Illustration by Andrew Kiss.)Apart from its beauty as part of the landscape, snow also plays a role as an animal habitat and is a crucial part of the cycle of life, as Love and Drake show in this captivating 2004 book. (Cover illustration by Mark Thurman.)had a story appropriate to the situation, whether it was shelling peas or baking pies or cleaning off bicycle knee scrapes. My father pursues stories of adventure and greatness, Lewis and Clarke, Scott of the Antarctic, Gandhi…. Both my parents love the natural world, and our childhood holidays usually included a trip to an enormous wetland or remote seashore or tacky gravel pit in search of something rare or unusual. I married a crusader for Canadian wildlife and wild places and have continued my interest in stories and nature with my husband and kids.

"My writing has drawn from these experiences. Taking Control is an historical fiction set in Alexander the Great's time. Take Action: An Environmental Book for Kids was published in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund. The Kids' Cottage Memory Book, a Canadian national bestseller, offers over one hundred summer activities with an environmental slant. The novel Grizzly Dance explores, for the adult market, social and environmental issues in the Canadian wilds.

"I love to write about the natural world in a way to grab the attention of young readers and to ignite in them the same kind of passion I have for our natural and cultural heritage," Love more recently commented. "As a result, I use 'story' in nonfiction because story grabs the heart and is true.

"I write with my sister and co-author, Jane Drake. Our subject matter (and passion) comes from our shared childhood with remarkable parents. In turn, we have been closely connected to the upbringing of each other's kids and their stories."