Little Skunk doesn’t know what to do when Big Bear comes down the mountain. He can’t run fast like Deer. Or fly away like Blue Jay. What can he do?
Marsha Diane Arnold is an award-winning author who the media has called "a born storyteller".
She's written eleven books, some magazine articles, a few poems, and when her children were young, over 500 newspaper columns! The column was called "homegrown treasures" She's received picture book honors as well, including The Ridgeway Award for Best First Book, Children's Choice awards, IRA Distinguished Book, and Smithsonian Notable Book.
Her two newest books show the range of her writing ability. The sweet Family Choice Award winner, Hugs on the Wind, is a very, very quiet book and the uproarious Northern California Book Award nominee Roar of a Snore is a very, very LOUD book.
Marsha travels nationally and internationally as a speaker for schools, conferences, and author festivals. When she's not visiting schools in her travels, she's traveling for fun. Recent trips include China, Alaska, and the Galapagos Islands. Marsha is currently working on a picture book about the Galapagos with a Galapagos nature guide who was born and raised there.
In 2008, Marsha was invited to be one of seven artists involved in Sequoia National Parks Foundation's 2008 Artists in the Back Country, the only children's author ever invited. Part of that involvement was a week at 11,000 feet at Foxtail Camp in Sequoia National Park, where she, along with a National Geographic photographer, a Hugo Award winner, painters, and photographers walked the hills, talked about their experiences, and were inspired by the magnificent landscape. The program hopes to rekindle the American tradition of enhancing public awareness of and appreciation for our national parks and natural world through the arts.
Her vision is to inspire readers to follow their own unique dreams and to have fun doing it! Talking about this with her young fans reminds her to keep following her own dreams, even though she's 60, not 6. "We should never stop dreaming!" she says.
You can find out more about Marsha and her books at her website, www.marshadianearnold.com, or her blog, www.storymagician.blogspot.com
