Ann Purmell was featured in the September 2005 issue of Kids in Common

Born to Write Books
By Carolyn Widman
September 05 KiC Feature Article
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with Permission.

Jackson-area children's author Ann Purmell gushes with enthusiasm, explaining her surprising success in the children's literature world. She radiates happiness, talking about her family and her work. Her passion for life, and for writing, is unmistakable.

As a toddler, Ann displayed unmistakable signs of a budding wordsmith. "I remember climbing over the bars of my crib, grabbing crayons and coloring books, and climbing back in," she recalled. "I didn't know how to write, but I was trying to."

As Ann grew, her scroll-like crayon drawings matured into poetry. Sharing a special bond with her grandmother, a poet and Ann's namesake, the two of them read and wrote together. Her grandmother encouraged her love of writing and storytelling, more than anyone else, Ann remembered. "She never criticized anything."

Growing up in Ann Arbor and graduating from Eastern Michigan University, Ann worked as a nurse, but continued writing, occasionally freelancing for local papers and magazines, even getting a poem and story published in national anthologies.

Still, the road to being a professional, published author was full of bumps and starts. Ann attended Spring Arbor University in 1998, hoping to become an elementary school teacher. She had almost finished her degree when life dealt her an overwhelming setback. Diagnosed with a chronic lung ailment, she quit school, stopped nearly all of her daily activities and was confined to bed rest. The bubbly and vivacious young mother and up-and-coming teacher was suddenly debilitated and frightened. She turned to writing for comfort. Eventually, her daily journaling turned into stacks of legal pads in and around her bed.

One fall day, "Grandpa drives the tractor that pulls the wagon…" popped into her head. She had been thinking about her family's tradition of visiting apple cider mills. She wrote it down, bemused. "I thought, this is something for children. I don't write for children!"

Days later, the next sentence arrived. "The book was almost all written in my head," she said.

Soon, Ann was feeling better. She decided to abandon her freelancing for children's writing, and never looked back. Within weeks, her first manuscript was off to publishers, and she prepared to wait months, even years, to hear back.

Millbrook Press purchased Apple Cider Making Days within 5 days of its receipt. "That was unheard of!" Ann gushed. And it was a sign of things to come. Giraffes (Random House) and Where Wild Babies Sleep. (Boyds Mills Press) were also snapped up by publishers, within a year of each other, each coming out in 2003.

Illuminating a typical day for a herd of mother, father and baby giraffes, Ann hopes Giraffes ignites a love of words and learning in her young readers. Its follow up, Where Wild Babies Sleep was inspired by her own wild babies. Exasperated after a summer afternoon spent refereeing between then-second-grader Hilary and eighth-grader Michael, she exclaimed to her husband Bruce, "They like wild animals!" His simple solution: "Turn it into a book!"

The sweet success of Apple Cider Making Days, followed by Giraffes and Where Wild Babies Sleep serves as inspiration for Ann to keep writing and sharing her gifts with children the world over.

"What I would like most is to somehow, someway develop [in children] a love of reading, of words, a love of all things that are the craft," she smiled.

Ann is excited about her upcoming books, and eager to produce more winning manuscripts to share with the world. Fans can look forward to stories about Christmas tree farming, and maple syrup making, debuting in 2006 and 2007 from Holiday House.

Finally fulfilling her childhood dream, she advises parents—whether they're raising future writers, scientists, mathematicians or comedians—to simply "get out of the way!"

"Let your kids develop and blossom," she said. "Sometimes what it takes to be a success as an adult is what drives your parents crazy when you're a kid," she laughed. "And for me, I was born with the gene to write."