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Mel Boring
Occupation Writer and teacher
Genres Children's Fiction and Non-Fiction
Official website

Contents

[edit] Biography

Mel Boring (born 1939) is an American children's author who specializes in non-fiction. He has published several books including, Incredible Constructions and the People Who Built Them, Caterpillars, Bugs, and Butterflies, and Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine, (coauthored with Leslie Dendy). Boring, who has had a long and varied career, began as an educator which sparked his interest in writing books for children. In addition to writing, Boring travels the world to speak to students, sharing the processes of book writing and publishing, while wearing a Cat-in-the-Hat costume.

[edit] Personal

Boring was born September 12, 1939, in St. Clair Shores, MI; son of Harold Truman (an electrician) and Helen Irene (Hatfield) Boring. He married Carol Lynne Trettin (a registered nurse), June 21, 1975. He has four children: Joshua Scott, Jeremy Davies (actor), Zachary Michael, and Katrina Lynne.


Boring claims he had difficulty learning to read in early childhood, though he loved to hear books read to him. Those books, especially Dr. Seuss’s The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, served as inspiration for his career in writing. [1]

[edit] Education

Boring earned his B. A. from Sterling College, Sterling, KS in 1961 and attended Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J., earning his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in 1965.

[edit] Career

Boring has published 12 books and over 25 stories in such magazines as Highlights for Children and Cricket. He also spent 18 years as an instructor with the Institute of Children's Literature, working with hundreds of students who study to write for children. [2]


His career highlights include:

  • Elementary school teacher in Meriden, KS, 1961–62
  • Chi Alpha Student Center, Berkeley, CA, assistant director, 1965–67
  • Ordained interdenominational minister, 1966
  • Inter-Church Team Ministries, Newhall, CA, director of student conferences and seminars, 1967–69
  • Elementary school teacher in Monroe Center, MI, 1969–71
  • Junior high school teacher of mathematics in Palmdale, CA, 1971–76
  • Member of Green Valley, CA, Volunteer Fire Department, 1972–76
  • Radio announcer, 1976–80
  • High school teacher of social studies in Vergennes, VT, 1978–80
  • Writer and editor for Hoffman Information Systems, 1972–74
  • Editor of Children's Writer's E-News, 2003–06


[edit] Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

[edit] Honors/ Awards

  • Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators of Iowa Award
  • Booklist Top-Ten Science Books for Youth designation (2005)
  • Book Links Lasting Connections designation (2005)
  • Subaru Science Books and Films Prize finalist (2006)
  • American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults designation (2006)
  • New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age designation (2006)

[edit] List of Books

  • Sealth: The Story of an American Indian, Dillon, 1978.
  • The Rainmaker, Random House (New York, NY), 1980.
  • Clowns: The Fun Makers, Messner, 1980.
  • Wovoka: The Story of an American Indian, Dillon, 1980.
  • Incredible Constructions and the People Who Built Them, Walker (New York, NY), 1984.
  • Birds, Nests, and Eggs, NorthWord (Minnetonka, MN), 1996.
  • Caterpillars, Bugs, and Butterflies, NorthWord (Minnetonka, MN), 1996.
  • Rabbits, Squirrels, and Chipmunks, NorthWord (Minnetonka, MN), 1996, illustrated by Linda Garrow, Gareth Stevens (Milwaukee, WI), 2000.
  • (With Diane L. Burns and Leslie Dendy) Fun with Nature, illustrated by Linda Garrow, NorthWord (Minnetonka, MN), 1999.
  • (With Leslie Dendy) Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine, illustrated by C.B. Mordan, Holt (New York, NY), 2005.
  • Flamingos, Loons, and Pelicans, illustrated by Andrew Recher, NorthWord (Minnetonka, MN), 2006.
  • Contributor to magazines, including Highlights for Children, Young World, and Children's Playmate.

[edit] Quotations

"A young friend of my son's once asked me if I had 'made' the book Clowns: The Fun Makers. I started to correct him, saying that I had 'written' it. Then I realized that making a book is more correct. Publishing a book is more than writing. It's the revision, the publisher-seeking, the chaptering, the art-work, the meeting of deadlines, the intensive work with a book's editors. And the unparalleled thrill of holding in your hands the result of a creative idea once inside your head and heart."


"I had always had an unfocused interest in writing. It came into focus as I was reading to my students in a one-room school in Michigan in 1970. I saw such enjoyment in their eyes that it made me want to give that enjoyment myself. So I began writing magazine stories and articles in order to gain the experience that would teach me how to write."


"At first I thought of children's books as a stepping stone to writing 'serious' books for adults. But stepping along the stones, I found my imagination being captured by a world of literature that I had never taken seriously. I've been a willing captive of children's books ever since."


"What I discovered is that children's books are serious literature. They are roads that children travel as they develop into adults. Hopefully, the ideas they feed on along the way in books will be included in their adult selves and not surrendered to the demands of a falsely sophisticated adult world in which imagination is often undernourished."


"There is much in adult media that fails to exercise imagination and thus threatens to 'obsolesce' it. Imaginative children's books can deliver a child's imagination intact into their adult self. For me, this has made writing children's books a pretty serious business. But fortunately, humor is one of the tools I have found most useful. It keeps us from the opposite extreme that also smothers imagination: taking life too seriously."


"I take neither rejections nor acceptances too seriously. The rejection of a manuscript can be the road to its revision and acceptance, and continual acceptance can be the road to unimaginative books. Long live rejection and acceptance, and longer live imaginative children's books!" [3]

[edit] Trivia

  • Boring's first 12 fiction submissions to children's magazines received a total of 143 rejections with only one acceptance.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools Web Site, (April 4, 2007), autobiography of Mel Boring.
  2. ^ Oregon Coast Children's Book Writer Workshop Web Site, (April 4, 2007), Instructor profiles, Mel Boring.
  3. ^ "Mel Boring" in Contemporary Authors. (A Profile of the Author's Life and Works) Gale, 2002.
  4. ^ Oregon Coast Children's Book Writer Workshop Web Site, (April 4, 2007), Instructor profiles, Mel Boring.
  5. ^ Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools Web Site, (April 4, 2007), autobiography of Mel Boring.

[edit] Further Reading

[edit] Book Reviews

  • Booklist, July, 2005, John Peters, review of Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine, p. 1922.
  • Horn Book, May-June, 2005, Danielle J. Ford, review of Guinea Pig Scientists, p. 347.
  • Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2005, review of Guinea Pig Scientists, p. 587.
  • School Library Journal, November, 1981, Gale Eaton, review of Wovoka: The Story of an American Indian, p. 88; August, 1985, review of Incredible Constructions, p. 61; July, 2005, Jodi Kearns, review of Guinea Pig Scientists, p. 114; February, 1979, Norman Leaderer, review of Sealth, p.52.
  • Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1985, review of Incredible Constructions, p. 196; June, 2005, Melissa Potter, review of Guinea Pig Scientists, p. 156.

[edit] Biography

  • Something About the Author v. 35, 1984, Gale Res, Anne Commire, Biography: Mel Boring, p.314.
  • Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators of Iowa Web site, "Mel Boring"(March 27, 2007)

[edit] External Links

Mel Boring's Website