Background

Marjorie Newman was born in the United Kingdom.

Education

Marjorie Newman began writing when she was about seven years old. She attended Southlands College in London, United Kingdom.

Career

Marjorie Newman, before becoming a writer, worked at a variety of jobs, including office work and retail sales. She worked for many years as a full-time teacher and gradually moved to teaching part-time and writing part-time, then becoming a full-time writer.

Her first children's book, Wilkins the Armchair Cat, was published in 1978. Since then, Newman has written more than ninety books for young people from publishers such as Ginn, Hodder, Scholastic, Hamish Hamilton, Scripture Union, John Hunt, and more. Some of Newman's books were written in as little as two days. Other books took up to a year or more. She gets her ideas from a variety of sources, including television, or other books she read, or from things she sees children do.

Puzzles and games add an interactive element to some of Newman's books. In The Wonderful Journey of Cameron Cat, curious feline Cameron's sense of adventure and exploration gets him stuck in the back of a furniture van. Readers solve puzzles throughout the story as they read about Cameron's attempts to get back to his owner, Ann.

A number of Newman's works revolve around Biblical teachings and stories from the Bible. In A Child's First Book of Prayers, Newman provides a selection of prayers for children newly introduced to religion. The Children's Illustrated Bible presents the Bible in a format accessible to younger readers. Newman offers stories of Biblical characters, themes, and events in titles such as Noah Builds a Boat, A Boy Helps Jesus, and The Good Neighbor.

Many of Newman's works are populated by gentle and understanding animals, some of whom have the same reactions to the world that the children often have. Other animals in the stories represent different personalities - some difficult - that children may encounter. Newman's works also strive to explain the sometimes bewildering, sometimes painful events in a child's world.

In addition to writing children's books, Newman is also the author of scripts for radio, television, and audio cassette.

Achievements

• Marjorie Newman is a recognized children's author who has written a lot of books that have received wide acclaim. Her book, Mole and the Baby Bird, is considered to be her most popular book. It was a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Book Sense 76 Children's Pick, and a Junior Library Guild Selection. For this book, Newman received the 2003 Christopher Award.

Works

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  • The Christmas Story

    (A retelling of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus ...)

    1990
  • Captain Pike Looks After the Baby

    (Captain Pike discovers that looking after a baby isn't qu...)

    2004
  • The Wonderful Journey of Cameron Cat

    (When Cameron, the curious cat, goes out to explore and ge...)

    1998
  • A Child's First Book of Prayers

    (A Child's First Book of Prayers is a collection of childr...)

    1991
  • Is That What Friends Do?

    (Monkey and Elephant decide to be friends, but the path to...)

    1998
  • Bible People

    (A retelling of well-known Bible stories drawn from the Ol...)

    1990
  • Ideas With Water

    (Ideas With Water features ten low-cost ideas and experime...)

    1998
  • Mole and the Baby Bird

    (When Mole finds the baby bird injured and alone he takes ...)

    2002
  • Children's Illustrated Bible

    (This book contains over 130 Bible stories which include m...)

    1989
  • Boswell the Kitchen Cat

    (Boswell the kitchen cat loves to cook - sizzling sausages...)

    2002
  • The King & the Cuddly

    (Cuthburt the Strong, a very bold and brave lion, is the k...)

    1999
  • Just Like You Did

    (When a new baby comes into the house a little boy is rath...)

    2005
  • Yo Ho Ho!

    (Class 4 has a very strange new teacher. Mr. Cutlass wears...)

    1996
  • Wilkins the Armchair Cat 1978
  • Green Monster Magic 1988
  • The Scary Mouse 1987
  • Sir Garibald and Hot Nose 1996
  • Dogs 2000
  • Skipper at School 1992
  • My Book of Favorite Prayers 1990
  • Look at Me Now 1988
  • Mr. Green Can't Sleep 1982

Views

Offering advice, Newman urges people who want to write children's books to work hard at thinking like a child, to read kids' books, to talk to children, and to watch television aimed at young people.

Membership

Marjorie Newman is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Interests

• reading, drawing, collecting second-hand books, playing guitar, violin, piano