Doreen Cronin- Award
Winning Author of Children's Literature
Doreen Cronin was born in 1966 in Queens,
New York, and spend most of her childhood in Merrick, New York. Today she is an
award-winning author of children's literature, packing humor and fun into her
stories, which are usually written with meaningful messages for kids, like the
importance of writing or being kind to your mom, but are always written
hilariously. Children love the humor in Cronin's Stories.
Cronin
credits her sense of humor to her father. On her biography page,
she writes, "I decided that I wanted to be a police officer or an FBI
agent... When I actually grew up, I realized those were dangerous.. I changed
my mind". Any
teacher or parent reading her blog will easily see that she communicates
excellently with young people.
Instead
of becoming a police officer or an FBI agent, Cronin decided to become a
lawyer. She practiced law in Manhattan, New York for five years before her
first children's picture book Click
Clack Moo was
published. Becoming
an author did not happen overnight for Cronin. Cronin had submitted Click,
Clack, Moo to
several publishers, all of whom rejected the book. She wasn't actually
actively pursuing a publisher when a woman at one of the companies came across
the story, took an interest, and called her to see if she was still interested.
Typing cows were
a big hit! The book was given a Caldecott Honor in 2001, prior to the publication
of Cronin's second book, Giggle,
Giggle, Quack.
Manyof her titles are named with what seem like nonsense words that are
engaging to young, emerging readers, and the story lines also catch the
attention of young people. Cronin’s stories are so beneficial to these young
readers because they
teach them about the power in their words. The story lines are hilarious to
students, but are perfect stories to use to motivate themselves through writing—either the “old-fashioned” paper/pencil
way, or the “new-fangled” digital way. “Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: A Typing
Adventure” includes an interactive QWERTY keyboard to introduce keyboard
recognition.
Cronin also has a
three-book series (so far) titled with verb words, like “Wiggle”, “Bounce”, and
“Stretch” that are perfect for young children who are beginning to be
introduced to verbs, or even used at any grade level for brain-break
activities.
These books star a brown and tan puppy who is adorably illustrated to
demonstrate each move, like stretching like a peacock to show your feathers, or wiggling like a fish. .
To transition from
emergent writing/typing skills and the importance of writing, Cronin’s “Diary
of a…” series
books are great models of how journal and diary writing should look or be
organized for students, but are presented in such a fun way, it would be
difficult not to want to begin keeping a journal after reading the stories. Each page is a
new entry from the main character that humorously chronicles the daily events
in a bug’s (a worm, a spider, and a fly) life. Also, each of the three books incorporates the other characters from the series.
Presentation
of Award-Winning Book
Diary of a Worm is the perfect story to help introduce students to
journal writing for enjoyment. Written
entirely from the first-person perspective of a worm, students will be
delighted to see the daily shenanigans and happenings in a worm’s life. The worm writes about his importance to the earth
and how he and his family dig holes to help the earth breathe, among other
benefits. But, he realizes that there are pros and cons to being a worm (like
not being able to do any moves in the hokey pokey beside head in/head out, or
having a face that looks a lot like a rear-end..). In the story, Worm spends time with his best
friend, Spider. The two like each other a lot but can’t do some activities that
the other can do.. Worm can’t hang upside down or run like Spider, and poor
Spider can’t dig into the dirt like worm can. The last line in the story is an
excellent reminder for readers that even though a creature may seem small or
unimportant, all creatures have important jobs on earth, including itty-bitty
earthworms.
Classroom
Connections:
- Students
can consider the perspective of any animal and write journal entries using
that animal’s voice.
- The book could be used as a
read-aloud introduction to a recycling, composting, or Earth Day unit..
- The
book could be read prior to a field trip to the Compost Farm at SIU.
- Students
could make instant-pudding worms in dirt.
- Students could create worm-farms with soil, sand, and a mashed banana.
As
students get older, Cronin has a series that will grow right along with them. “The Chicken Squad” and “The Trouble with
Chickens” are perfect for students in 2nd or
3rd grades who have
advanced past the barnyard stories, but just aren’t ready for more mature material
like “Captain Underpants.”
Similarly written to the Pilkey books, children are sure to adore these quirky
stories about four mystery-solving, crime-fighting, shape-loving chicks. A sequel,
titled “The Case of the
Weird Blue Chicken”
will be released in September, 2014.
Other
stories from Cronin that don’t necessarily carry an “educational” theme are “Boom
Snot Twitty” and “M.O.M. (Mom Operating Manual”. “Boom Snot Twitty” is the story of three unlikely friends (A bear, a
snail, and a robin), and a day they spend together, showing readers that you
don’t have to be
just like your friends to have a good time with them. “M.O.M.” is a great book
to include around Mother’s Day: A delightfully sweet story about ways that
kiddos can take care of their moms, like their moms do for them so often.
Today,
Cronin lives in Brooklin, New York with her husband, two daughters, and a dog,
Buster. She continues
to write funny children’s
books for her fan’s
reading pleasure.
Whether young or old, Doreen Cronin’s sense of humor and positive representation of the
benefits of practicing and using writing skills are sure to keep readers coming
back to her titles over and over again.
Resource Bibliography
http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Doreen-Cronin/1569483
