Joan Bonsignore

Background

Joan Bonsignore was born on March 17, 1959, in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of John, a university professor, and Fenna Lee Bonsignore, a pharmacist.

Education

Joan Bonsignore studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She got there a Bachelor of Arts in 1982 and a Master of Business Administration in 1984.

Career

Joan Bonsignore taught in elementary schools since 1984 and worked with adults with developmental disabilities at the Center for Human Resources Development to 1999. After a fifteen-year career, she put her experience in the classroom to new use as a writer of books for children. While working as a teacher, she enjoyed writing, but she did not attempt to publish her work until after she retired from teaching. In 2001 she published her first book, "Stick out Your Tongue!: Fantastic Facts, Features, and Functions of Animal and Human Tongues."

The manuscript "Tongues Aren't Just for Licking Lollypops" filed away for years with other Joan's stories. She had put the original story in a readable format with her watercolor sketches of the animals. Then, Joan decided to send her creation out to a select number of publishers. So the publisher "Peachtree Publishers" accepted her manuscript." In "Stick out Your Tongue!" Bonsignore presents examples of how various creatures such as mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and fish, use their tongues.

Joan Bonsignore currently serves as a teacher at White Brook Middle School, and she continues to write children's stories on a variety of topics.

Achievements

• Joan Bonsignore is well-known as the author of the children's book "Stick Out Your Tongue!" in which young readers delight in discovering fascinating facts about the unusual features and functions of animal and human tongues. Also, Joan has taught in elementary schools and worked with adults with developmental disabilities for about fifteen years.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Stick Out Your Tongue!

    (Did you know these incredible tongue facts? The anteater’...)

    2001

Views

Quotations: "Teaching and writing are the two endeavors that piqued my enthusiasm from a very young age."

"Writing stories for children became a focus from the moment I knew how to read. Creative writing was not encouraged so much in school, but it was something I took great pleasure in at home."

"To write a story for children is for one moment in time to see through the eyes of a child and to regain, if only for that moment, that wonderful innocence belonging only to the young."

Interests

• Quilting with focus on design, cooking, baking, crafts of all kinds.

Connections

Father:

John Bonsignore

Mother:

Fenna Lee Bonsignore

Fenna Lee's maiden name is Fisher.