Date: Fri 10-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Quick Words:

Joan-Walsh-Anglund-author

Full Text:

(author-illustrator Joan Anglund visits Newtown, 5/10/96)

International Favorite Joan Walsh Anglund, With Friends

(with photos)

By Shannon Hicks

Classes at the St Rose School in Newtown were given a special treat last week

when world-renowned author-illustrator Joan Walsh Anglund made a visit to the

school.

Crowded into the parochial school's downstairs library, the walls filled with

stacks of wooden bookcases that have welcomed readers and special

presentations for years - a number of Mrs Anglund's titles on those shelves -

nearly 30 students, teachers and the school's principal, Donna DeLuca, sat

enthralled for over an hour as Mrs Anglund shared stories of her own.

When St Rose teacher Shirley Towne discovered one of her students, seventh

grader Thaddeus Harvey, was the grandson of one of her all-time favorite

authors, the industrious teacher did everything she could to politely persuade

the author-illustrator to visit the Newtown school. Mrs Towne, and the

students who are in her sixth- and seventh-grade reading classes, were honored

by a visit from the local author-illustrator when she visited on May 2.

Before the author arrived at the school, Mrs Towne and a few other teachers

were in the teacher's lounge, which faces the school's front parking lot. The

talk around the small tables all centered around the impending visit, with

everyone offering anecdotes on their favorite Anglund story. The room was

littered with multiple copies of Anglund books - teachers throughout the

building had bought out almost every book store in the area in anticipation of

the celebrity's visit.

Mrs Towne, who coordinated the event, could barely finish her lunch, she was

so excited.

"I'm a fan, as you can tell," she said between dainty bites and glances out

the window toward the parking lot. "This is quite an event for us." The room

erupted in nervous and excited chatter when Mrs Anglund emerged from her car

in the bright afternoon sunlight.

During the course of her visit, Joan Walsh Anglund - accompanied by her

husband, Bob, and the couple's daughter, Joy - described how she received her

start in writing, her thoughts on her books' longstanding success and even

offered a few words of advice to the next generation.

"Your thoughts are your own, and you will always have that gift to give

someone," the multi-million selling author declared. "They are just as

important, certainly, as anything I ever wrote."

A married couple - even a man and woman who have been in a longstanding

relationship - can read each other's minds, fill in the blanks and finish each

other's sentences. Countless times during the informal presentation, when Mrs

Anglund began describing a book's background or inspiration, it was Mr Anglund

who would provide an animated finish.

When Mrs Anglund began telling the children about her first brush with her

publishing company - Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich - Mr Anglund inserted his own

finish to the story. While it was a story the couple has probably told

hundreds of times, the easy give-and-take and obvious respect for each other

in the relationship allowed the story to sound fresh and spontaneous.

The Anglunds met when Bob Anglund was studying in college to be an actor and

Joan Walsh was a commercial artist for Marshall Field & Co. On their first

date, Bob asked Joan what she really wanted to do with her life. Her answer,

which surprised even herself, was to write and illustrate children's books.

"I'd never even said that before, even to myself," Mrs Anglund shared with the

group. "I'd never put it into words until that moment, when he asked me that."

"I didn't know what she was talking about," Mr Anglund inserted. But he smiled

when he said it, knowing full well he would always know and never forget that

hidden confession by his young date.

"But I said it, and he never forgot it," his wife continued. "You have to have

a dream, or you won't do anything. You have to begin with an idea in your

head... everything that has ever been made by man was a dream at one time."

Dr Seuss' first book was rejected 22 times before it was published. Joan

Anglund - actually, Bob Anglund - did not have to wait that long.

After the Anglunds were married in 1947, the couple moved from Illinois to New

York City. The young bride found herself situated in a "big scary city,"

having moved from "a friendly town," with a three-year old son, Todd, and

their seven-year old daughter, Joy. One day Joan found herself filling a steno

pad with simple notes about her loneliness while daughter Joy was playing with

a friend.

"I thought to myself, `I'm feeling so alone, but inside every one of those

lighted windows is a person that might be my friend," Mrs Anglund shared with

the classes. "So I began thinking `Well, what is a friend?' and I began to

write the line `Someone is a friend who likes you...'"

When Bob Anglund returned home from work that memorable evening, he saw what

Joan had done and asked how she would illustrate such a children's tale. Both

of Joan Anglund's parents were artists - her father, Tom Walsh, created the

Sherwin-Williams paint logo and the Victor Records logo, the familiar image of

a dalmation sitting next to a Victrola - so drawing came as easily as writing

from a very young age.

At her husband's request, Mrs Anglund drew the cherubic-faced characters that

have filled the pages of her books since. The little girl and little boy on

the cover of A Friend is Someone Who Likes You are the Anglunds' children, Joy

and Todd.

Soon after, and unbeknownst to Joan, Bob Anglund began shopping around what

would become his wife's first publication, the children's book A Friend is

Someone Who Likes You .

A few weeks later, Joan received some news that would change her life.

"I was sitting at home with my children and I got a phone call," Mrs Anglund

said. "They told me they wanted to publish my book!"

"It wasn't as easy as that," her husband said. Leaning conspiratorily towards

the students and lowering his voice, he told them, "I'd gone to seven

publishers, and the eighth one accepted it."

Jumping right back into the story, Mrs Anglund delightedly picked up with, "I

didn't know he had done this, but I got this call and they said, `This is

Harcourt-Brace... and we'd like to publish your book,' and I said `What

book?'"

The publishers found Mrs Anglund's story "charming" and wanted to begin

publishing A Friend is Someone Who Likes You immediately. And that was how, 44

million books ago, Joan Walsh Anglund began a walk down a path that has been

lettered with children's books enjoyed by readers of all ages around the

world.

First printed in 1958, A Friend... was named by The New York Times as one of

the ten best-illustrated books of that year. Additionally, 11 of Mrs Anglund's

books have each sold more than 100,000 copies. Her books have been

phenomenally popular from the onset, nearly four decades ago.

The innocent stories, always accompanied by the author's line drawings, have

always used simple words to convey wide-reaching ideas. According to an

autobiographical segment in The Third Book of Junior Authors (DeMontreville

and Hill, editors), Joan Anglund says her books are "accumulated memories of

[her] own childhood upon which are superimposed newer, more freshly etched

experiences of [her] own children's childhood."

Mrs Anglund has always felt people enjoy her books because they are true. They

are all stories based on experiences of her own, her children's and now even

her grandchildren's.

Thad Harvey's classmates were tickled to learn some of the illustrations in

Mrs Anglund's more recent books were depictions of their friend, and when Mrs

Anglund read and showed the drawings from the story "The Big Brown Bag," they

discovered the young girl portrayed in the story, Emily, was indeed Thad's

younger sister.

The depictions, Joan says, are not meant to be embarrassing to her children

and grandchildren, but to share their adventures. With so many drawings of

events in their life, Mrs Anglund's children and grandchildren do not need

photographs of their lives; they can open one of their mother's books to

recall nearly every important event.

After sharing the first edition of Mrs Anglund's initial book, the couple

passed around foreign issues of some of Mrs Anglund's books, as well as

resulting products based on her characters: stickers, dolls, calendars, etc.

Joan Walsh Anglund lives in an Eighteenth Century home in Redding with her

husband, Bob. She continues to write new books; her most recent, Angels , was

just released at the beginning of the month.