Joan Bauer

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born

July 12, 1951 in The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.joanbauer.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

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From: http://www.joanbauer.com/jbbio.html

July 12, 1951 - I was born at eleven A.M., a most reasonable time, my mother often said, and when the nurse put me in my mother's arms for the first time I had both a nasty case of the hiccups and no discernible forehead (it's since grown in). I've always believed in comic entrances.

As I grew up in River Forest, Illinois, in the 1950's, I seem to remember an early fascination with things that were funny. I thought that people who could make other people laugh were terribly fortunate. While my friends made their career plans, declaring they would become doctors, nurses, and lawyers, inwardly I knew that I wanted to be involved somehow in comedy. This, however, was a difficult concept to get across in...more From: http://www.joanbauer.com/jbbio.html

July 12, 1951 - I was born at eleven A.M., a most reasonable time, my mother often said, and when the nurse put me in my mother's arms for the first time I had both a nasty case of the hiccups and no discernible forehead (it's since grown in). I've always believed in comic entrances.

As I grew up in River Forest, Illinois, in the 1950's, I seem to remember an early fascination with things that were funny. I thought that people who could make other people laugh were terribly fortunate. While my friends made their career plans, declaring they would become doctors, nurses, and lawyers, inwardly I knew that I wanted to be involved somehow in comedy. This, however, was a difficult concept to get across in first grade. But I had a mother with a great comic sense (she was a high school English teacher) and a grandmother who had been a funny professional storyteller, so I figured the right genes were in there somewhere, although I didn't always laugh at what my friends laughed at and they rarely giggled at my jokes. That, and the fact that I was overweight and very tall, all made me feel quite different when I was growing up--a bit like a musk ox at a tea party.

My grandmother, who I called Nana, had the biggest influence on me creatively. She taught me the importance of stories and laughter. She never said, "Now I'm going to tell you a funny story," she'd just tell a story, and the humor would naturally flow from it because of who she was and how she and her characters saw the world. She showed me the difference between derisive laughter that hurts others and laughter that comes from the heart. She showed me, too, that stories help us understand ourselves at a deep level. She was a keen observer of people.

I kept a diary as a child, was always penning stories and poems. I played the flute heartily, taught myself the guitar, and wrote folk songs. For years I wanted to be a comedienne, then a comedy writer. I was a voracious reader, too, and can still remember the dark wood and the green leather chairs of the River Forest Public Library, can hear my shoes tapping on the stairs going down to the children's room, can feel my fingers sliding across rows and rows of books, looking through the card catalogs that seemed to house everything that anyone would ever need to know about in the entire world. My parents divorced when I was eight years old, and I was devastated at the loss of my father. I pull from that memory regularly as a writer. Every book I have written so far has dealt with complex father issues. My dad was an alcoholic and the pain of that was a shadow that followed me for years, but I've learned things from that experience that have made me resilient. I attempted to address those issues in Rules of the Road, and I took them even further in the companion book, Best Foot Forward. The theme that I try to carry into all of my writing is this: adversity, if we let it, will make us stronger.

In my twenties, I worked in sales and advertising for the Chicago Tribune, McGraw-Hill, WLS Radio, and Parade Magazine. I met my husband Evan, a computer engineer, while I was on vacation. Our courtship was simple. He asked me to dance; I said no. We got married five months later in August, 1981. But I was not happy in advertising sales, and I had a few ulcers to prove it. With Evan's loving support, I decided to try my hand at professional writing. I wish I could say that everything started falling into place, but it was a slow, slow build -- writing newspaper and magazine articles for not much money. My daughter Jean was born in July of '82. She had the soul of a writer even as a baby. I can remember sitting at my typewriter (I didn't have a computer back then) writing away with Jean on a blanket on the floor next to me. If my writing was bad that day, I'd tear that page out of the typewriter and hand it to her. "Bad paper," I'd say and Jean would r(less)

43 posts
Joan Bauer's Blog

Joan Bauer isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but she does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from her feed.

A New Season

A hydrangea that I thought had died pushes up in my garden. A vine I thought wasn't going to make it began thriving in the last two weeks. The age-old lilac tree that we were going to cut down because it never bloomed, flourished this year. I took a tree class today with my neighbors and we all officially adopted the trees on our street, pledging to care for them. I do not consider myself a gar...

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Published on May 14, 2011 19:16 • 72 views

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Books by Joan Bauer

Average rating: 3.80 · 14,287 ratings · 2,076 reviews · 19 distinct works

	Hope Was Here 3.98 avg rating — 5,408 ratings — published 2000 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Rules of the Road (Rules of the Road, #1) 3.86 avg rating — 1,929 ratings — 19 editions	My rating:
	Peeled 3.56 avg rating — 1,771 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Close to Famous 3.90 avg rating — 938 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Best Foot Forward (Rules of the Road, #2) 3.67 avg rating — 941 ratings — published 2005 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Squashed 3.80 avg rating — 863 ratings — published 1992 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Stand Tall 3.64 avg rating — 654 ratings — published 2002 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Thwonk 3.23 avg rating — 797 ratings — published 1995 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Backwater 3.71 avg rating — 609 ratings — published 1999 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Sticks 3.49 avg rating — 164 ratings — 11 editions	My rating:

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Series by Joan Bauer

Rules of the Road (2 books)
by Joan Bauer

3.80 avg rating — 2,867 ratings

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Quotes by Joan Bauer

“My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid.”
― Joan Bauer, Rules of the Road

tags: books , library

374 people liked it

“We read to learn and to grow, to laugh, to be motivated, and to understand things we've never been exposed to. We read for strength to help us when we feel broken, discouraged or afraid. We read to find hope. We read because we're not just made up of skin and bones, and a deep need for chocolate, but we're also made up of words, words which describe our thoughts and what's hidden in our hearts.”
― Joan Bauer

52 people liked it

“When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian.”
― Joan Bauer

tags: librarians , libraries , paraphrased

50 people liked it

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Polls

What Newbery Honor book would you like to read in July?

Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

2 votes 33.3%

The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum

1 vote 16.7%

Whistler's Van by Idwal Jones

1 vote 16.7%

Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes

1 vote 16.7%

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

1 vote 16.7%

6 total votes

1 comment

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Newbery Award...: 2001 - Hope Was Here	1	4	Feb 08, 2010 09:36am
Wild Things: YA G...: YA Reading Challenge #4: Tasks and Discussion	205	215	Jul 18, 2010 08:11pm
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3072	2868	Aug 31, 2010 10:39pm
The Seasonal Read...: Summer 2010 'Style' Completed Tasks	622	452	Sep 01, 2010 06:16am
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2596	666	Feb 28, 2011 09:05pm
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2898	730	May 31, 2011 09:01pm
Buddy Reads: Title and Author Game	381	42	Jul 05, 2011 12:22pm
Wild Things: YA G...: August nominations closed! RUN OFF POLL UP!!	11	61	Jul 27, 2011 07:05am
Around the World ...: West Virginia	2	9	Sep 01, 2011 03:50pm
All The Books You...: What are you reading right now?	667	246	Nov 18, 2011 04:56pm

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Joan Bauer

Author profile

43 posts
Joan Bauer's Blog

combine editions
Books by Joan Bauer

Series by Joan Bauer

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Joan Bauer

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add NewVideos

Joan's Fans (194)

Joan Bauer

Author profile

43 postsJoan Bauer's Blog

combine editionsBooks by Joan Bauer

Series by Joan Bauer

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Joan Bauer

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

43 posts
Joan Bauer's Blog

combine editions
Books by Joan Bauer