Most Often Asked Questions
What do the initials "B. G." stand for?
There have been some pretty creative guesses about that.
Big Guy? Brigadier General? Before Google? Book Girl?
Actually the “B” is for Barbara and the “G” is for Gulbrandsen, my last name before I was married. But, I think “Book Girl” really suits me the best.
What is your favorite book you wrote?
Usually the one I am working on! This question reminds me of a pet show where children brought in a favorite stuffed animal. Each one came home with a prize. My son’s rabbit won “Best Tooth in Show.”
There is something special to me about each of my books. THE DINOSAUR WHO LIVED IN MY BACKYARD: Best First Book. JAKE BAKED THE CAKE: My Favorite Read Aloud. THE ONCE UPON A TIME MAP BOOK: was my Favorite Idea. Well, you get the idea. Each one of my books is special to me in some way.
How did you become a writer?
I didn’t plan on being a writer, but books have always been a part of my life. When I was growing up, bedtime was not bedtime without a story. I still have copies of some of my favorites.
I still have my copies of The Little Red Caboose, by Marian Potter and illustrated by Tibor Gergely, The Tall Book of Mother Goose illustrated by Fedor Rojankovsky, Cinderella illustrated by Ruth Ives, A Little House of Your Own by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers illustrated by Irene Haas, and The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature, edited by Margaret Martingnoni.
I wrote my first book, PATSY THE TURTLE, when I was five. I did the pictures too! Click on “FUN STUFF” at the top of the page, then click on the PATSY THE TURTLE link to see and read the whole book.
In college I majored in Fine Arts and studied bookmaking. After graduation I worked in New York City in Children’s Book Publishing as an Art Director. I started writing books when I had children of my own.
Where do you get your ideas?
From everywhere! Children give me lots of material.
Sometimes I’m intrigued with a subject or a point of view. ROAD BUILDERS and ONE LITTLE, TWO LITTLE, THREE LITTLE PILGRIMS are examples of subject books.
Sometimes I begin with a concept. When I was little I thought all the nursery rhyme characters lived in the same town because they were always in the same book. That “town” became the setting for THE MISSING TARTS.
I’ve never been very good at reading maps, but I’ve always liked maps with little pictures on them. I thought that putting together a book of maps of really interesting places would be fun. That is the idea behind THE ONCE UPON A TIME MAP BOOK and THE SCARY PLACES MAP BOOK.
But every one of my books begins when I find the right questions to ask.
Click on the picture to read my
first book, PATSY THE TURTLE