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Kathleen T. Pelley

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.kathleenpelley.com

Twitter

https://twitter.com/journeywstory

Genre

Children's

Member Since

April 2016

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I was born in Glasgow, Scotland—a country famous for its heather dappled mountains, lochs, tartans, thistles, shaggy Highland cattle, sheep, bagpipes, castles, haggis, and of course, a veritable treasure chest of stories.
My gentle Irish father also loved to feed me his own tales of fairies, leprechauns, and banshees. Every summer, my two big brothers and I would visit my grandparents’ farm in Ireland, where we whiled away the days with hay-rides, turf-rides, milking cows, shearing sheep, feeding pet lambs, and organizing frog races.
My passion for stories stemmed from listening to them: crouched in front of the radio for the BBC children’s hour, or huddled before a turf fire in Ireland as the aunts and uncles talked in low, hushed voices, or I was born in Glasgow, Scotland—a country famous for its heather dappled mountains, lochs, tartans, thistles, shaggy Highland cattle, sheep, bagpipes, castles, haggis, and of course, a veritable treasure chest of stories.
My gentle Irish father also loved to feed me his own tales of fairies, leprechauns, and banshees. Every summer, my two big brothers and I would visit my grandparents’ farm in Ireland, where we whiled away the days with hay-rides, turf-rides, milking cows, shearing sheep, feeding pet lambs, and organizing frog races.
My passion for stories stemmed from listening to them: crouched in front of the radio for the BBC children’s hour, or huddled before a turf fire in Ireland as the aunts and uncles talked in low, hushed voices, or walking hand in hand with my dad down a leafy lane, as he whispered secrets to me about mermaids and banshees. Before I could write words, or read them, I knew that they were magic, because of the music they made.
After I learned to read, I devoured all the fairy tales I could find. At school my favorite subjects were English and History and Drama. At Edinburgh University, I studied History. I was never very good at remembering all the dates, because that involved numbers, but I had no trouble remembering the people and the events, because that involved stories. As an elementary teacher, I loved teaching language and history and drama. In my classroom I always made plenty of time for reading stories aloud to my students, no matter what age they were.
After moving to the States in 1990 with my husband, an American, and my two daughters, one born in Scotland, the other in England, I was extremely homesick. Writing helped to soothe the hurt in my heart, and soon I was sending off my stories to publishers.
After many, many, years, and many, many rejections, I finally began to experience a few small successes, and in October 2003, my first children’s picture book was published by Child and Family Press.
When I’m not writing my own stories, I enjoy telling stories to anyone who will listen. For over twelve years I was a narrator of books on tape for the Colorado Talking Book Library, and for the past 20 years I have been fortunate to have a wonderful audience of children at two inner city elementary schools, where I visit once a month and read folktales and fairytales from around the world to grades K-6. Visit my website to sign up for a membership and access to these stories online. ...more

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Kathleen T. Pelley’s books

Average rating: 3.96 · 398 ratings · 115 reviews · 13 distinct works

	Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), S.D. Schindler (Illustrator) 3.96 avg rating — 138 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Raj the Bookstore Tiger by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), Paige Keiser (Illustrator) 3.70 avg rating — 103 ratings — published 2011 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Inventor McGregor by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), Michael Chesworth (Illustrator) 4.05 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Giant King 4.50 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2003 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happy Mamas 3.86 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2016 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sandal Artist by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), Lois Rosio Sprague (Illustrator) 4.12 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jesús, Mary, and Joseph by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), Dubravka Kolanovic (Illustrator) 4.36 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2021	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Five Little Angels 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2021 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happy Papas by Kathleen T. Pelley (Goodreads Author), Rachel Adams (Editor), Mariya Prytula (Illustrator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happy Papas it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Kathleen T. Pelley's Blog

Follow these Princesses into their Secret Enchanted Land-Storytelling Podcast for Kids-The Twelve Dancing Princesses:E150

Night after night these twelve princesses wear out their shoes. But how? Their father, the King, promises a great reward to anyone who can help him solve this mystery. A Grimm fairytale that is sure to enchant little ones. (duration -11 minutes) An episode from Journey with Story, a storytelling podcast for kids ages 4-10.

If your little listener wants to ask a question or share a drawing inspir

Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Perks Of Bein...: Group Read-A-Thon August 2015	55	135	Sep 01, 2015 03:16AM

Kathleen’s Quotes

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

tags: good, writing

19446 likes

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: books, children, difficult, grown-ups, write, writers, writing

16953 likes