CHESS! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT! is the most recent. It was published in 2008 by Clarion. It's in a series of books about the kids at Table Two in Mrs. Zookey's second grade class that includes IT GOES EEEEEEEEEEEEE!, BUG IN A RUG, and GOTCHA!

Her books, notably THIRTEEN WAYS TO SINK A SUB and DO BANANAS CHEW GUM? have won state child-voted prizes from Florida to the Pacific Northwest.  In 2005 she received, from the Illinois Reading Council's Prairie State Award for excellence in writing for children.

Born in Beardstown, Illinois, she also grew up in Pittsfield, Oak Park, and small towns in Missouri. She studied at the University of Missouri and received her bachelor's degree from the Northwestern University School of Speech. She lives in Wilmette.

In talks to children, generally about an hour with questions, she tells how a book grows from ideas to finished volume, where her ideas come from and what she does with them once she gets them. It's fun.

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