As a compromise with her mother, Agell applied to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, for early acceptance.
She later earned a teaching certificate from the University of Southern Maine, and a master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986.
As a compromise with her mother, Agell applied to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, for early acceptance.
She later earned a teaching certificate from the University of Southern Maine, and a master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884481131/?tag=2022091-20
1994
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0152004440/?tag=2022091-20
1994
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088448114X/?tag=2022091-20
1994
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1472230493/?tag=2022091-20
1998
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2002
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2003
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2008
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2010
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1944762639/?tag=2022091-20
2019
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1338214888/?tag=2022091-20
2019
Charlotte Agell was born on September 7, 1959 in Norsjö, Vasterbottens Lan, Sweden, into the family of L. Christer Agell and Margareta Segerborg McDonald. Her great-grandfather, K. Hugo Segerborg, was director of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Of her childhood, Agell says, "somebody always handed me art supplies." Her family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada when she was two years old. Where her Brother, Karl Agell and sister, Anna Agell were born.
Charlotte Agell attended Carlyle Elementary school, learning English and hearing tales of Maine from Anglo-Canadian and Franco-Canadian friends. She became enamored with Maine, writing a story set in Halibut, Maine, a fictional town in which she imagined herself as her protagonist, a ruddy-cheeked boy catching fish for dinner. From Canada, Agell's family moved back to Sweden, briefly, then to Hong Kong when she was eleven. She graduated from the Hong Kong International School, a Lutheran mission school that, she says, was affiliated with an open-minded ecumenical church.
As a compromise with her mother, Agell applied to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, for early acceptance. Instead of leaving school for a hitch-hiking stint with her boyfriend, she left Hong Kong and arrived in Maine in 1977. She felt an immediate sense of home and has lived in the state ever since. Recalling her childhood story, she wonders if, somehow, she'd "written herself into the state." Agell graduated from Bowdoin College in 1981, where she studied art and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education. She later earned a teaching certificate from the University of Southern Maine, and a master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986.
Agell became a naturalized citizen of the United States in the 1990s. She taught multilingual and multicultural education at Portland High School, Portland, and lived in several Maine towns before settling in Brunswick, with her husband, Peter J. Simmons, an arts administrator and master gardener. She and Peter have two children, Anna and Jon.
Along with her work as a writer and illustrator, Agell is a teacher in the gifted and talented language arts program at Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth. She says she's found her "tribe" with middle-schoolers. She has also conducted workshops for youths and adults at various literary events throughout the state, including the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle.
Agell’s love of water and the outdoors translated into her first work. "The Sailor's Book", about a boy and girl who sail on a sea they imagine to be a dragon. Irene Aubrey, a reviewer in Canadian Materials, praised the book’s “lyrical tone”, adding: “The great appeal of this picture-book fantasy lies in its simplicity and naivete.”
"Dancing Feet", another lyrical picture book offering from Agell, poetically celebrates the function of a variety of human body parts. Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper called attention to the book’s “jaunty rhyme”, maintaining that "Dancing Feet" would be “especially good for story hours where kids will clap along to the catchy rhythm.” Lesley McKinstry, writing in School Library Journal, called Agell’s book “delightful”, noting that it “shows individuals from a variety of cultures engaging in activities, making this a good choice to introduce similarities and differences among people.” The New York Times Book Review called Dancing Feet “ebullient” and “celebratory.”
Quotations:
“I have always written and illustrated little books. When I speak to school children, one of my favorite ‘show and tell’ items is Tommy Pickle, an illustrated story about an elf and the girls who spy on him."
“I love to read, bake, and to be outside — in the woods, on a mountain, or by the water — all three at once, sometimes, preferably on cross-country skis on new snow.”
On May 15, 1981, Charlotte Agell married Peter J. Simmons, an arts administrator and master gardener, with whom she has two children, Ann and Jon.
