Esther Bender

Background

Mrs. Bender was born in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, United States, on March 14, 1942. She is the daughter of Alton (a farm equipment dealer and mechanic) and Rhoda (a restaurant owner; maiden name, Brenneman) Miller.

Education

Esther Bender was a student of Frostburg State University, from which she graduated with Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) in 1974 and Master of Arts in 1981. She did graduate study at Institute of Children’s Literature.

Career

Mrs. Bender was an elementary teacher at Garrett County Board of Education, Oakland, MD, from 1974 to 1991. During 1991-1995 she served as a resource teacher and since 1985 as a freelance writer.

At age thirty-five, Esther Bender found she had Parkinson’s disease, usually a disease of the elderly characterized by tremors and, for her, micrographia (tiny writing which fades out into a trembly line). With the possibility that Mrs. Bender might be disabled and need to retire early from teaching, she set out to learn the computer skills needed to compensate for her micrographia and to learn to write for publication. Soon Mrs. Bender was submitting short articles and stories and had small successes among a flurry of rejections.

In 1991 she bought a new computer and printer capable of desktop publishing. In the spring of 1993 her first book was accepted.

Achievements

• Esther Bender is the author of more than 100 published adult and children's articles, stories, and photographs, including April Bluebird, which was named to the C. S. Lewis list of 50 best picture books with Christian values in 1995.

Works

• book

  • Katie and the Lemon Tree

    (Chronicles the life of Katie and her husband Daniel who e...)

  • A Cry from the Clay

    (In a unique collection of short writings, meditations, po...)

  • Search for a Fawn

    (Copper has trouble coping with his grandfather's death an...)

  • Elisabeth & The Windmill (Lemon Tree Series)

    (Elizabeth, sixteen-year-old granddaughter of German immig...)

  • Virginia and the Tiny One (Lemon Tree Series)

    (While living with her family in a remote mountain area of...)

  • The Crooked Tree

    (Over a period of two hundred years, a tree grows thick an...)

  • Thank God for Rocks

    ("Many years ago, a poor man bought a small farm with a sm...)

  • Shadow at Sun Lake /Out of Print by Esther Bender (1995-04-01)
  • April Bluebird /Out of Print

    (This book is out of print from the publisher. One snowy A...)

Membership

• Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators , United States

• National Education Association , United States

• co-director, 1987-1991

  Tri-State Writer’s Guild , United States

• secretary, 1985-1986

  Garrett County Teacher’s Association , United States

Personality

“I was an avid reader in childhood who once set out to read all the classics and found myself reading forever with Sir Walter Scott and Dickens! I always planned to be a writer someday."

Interests

• desktop publishing, collecting old photos, writing family stories

Connections

Esther Bender married second husband, O-Jason Bender (a community activist) on June 11, 1983. She has 5 children: Renatta Joy Yoder Glotfelty, Ramona Beth Yoder Gillum, Wendy Bender Formet, Robin Bender, Brandi Bender Maust.

husband:

O-Jason Bender

Daughter:

Renatta Joy Yoder Glotfelty

Daughter:

Ramona Beth Yoder Gillum

Daughter:

Wendy Bender Formet

Daughter:

Robin Bender

Daughter:

Brandi Bender Maust