Picture book author Jim Aylesworth tells his stories with generous doses of loud sounds, rhythms and rhymes. His experiences as a teacher have taught him that these are the elements children like in a story, especially when it is being read aloud. So, in Hanna's Hog, Aylesworth includes a loud hog call, in The Completed Hickory Dickory Dock, he offers numerous bouncy nonsensical rhymes, in Country Crossing, the sounds of the still countryside and a train passing fill the night, and in Old Black Fly, a repetitious, rhythmic chant follows a pesky fly in its journey through a house. Little Bitty Mousie is another alphabetical romp thorough a household as Mousie explores the house...
Tip tippy tippy tippy
Went her little mousie toes
Sniff sniffy sniffy sniffy
Went her little mousie nose
Jim Aylesworth was born in Jacksonville, Florida but as an infant moved from the state. He lived in many places during his childhood: Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas... but by the time Aylesworth was 15 his family had settled in Hinsdale, Illinois and that is where he graduated from high school in 1961.
In 1965, he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a B.A. in English. He returned to Hinsdale and began a career as a stockbroker. By 1970, however, Aylesworth was thinking about what he really wanted to do. After a series of assignments as a substitute teacher, Aylesworth ended up in a primary classroom. He began teaching first grade students in Oak Park, Illinois in 1971 and entered Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois, to earn a graduate degree in elementary education -- a goal he reached in 1978.
During the years Aylesworth taught he was given several awards. In 1975 the Illinois State Board of Education named him among "Those Who Excel," and in 1984 he was named a "Governor's Master Teacher." The following year he was named Corcordia University's "Alumnus of the Year." In 1998 Hinsdale High School named him to their Hall of Fame. He has been honored in several years with an entry in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.
But it was his work with children that brought him the most reward. It was Aylesworth's experiences as a teacher that eventually led him to writing children's books. His students' enjoyment of his stories encouraged him to persist in pursuing his dream of being a children's book writer. It was in the classroom that he realized the power of books. He says, "I have seen a room full of children sit still and pay attention to a good book when it may be the first time they've been still at the same time all day."
During his twenty-five years of teaching Aylesworth read hundreds of books to his young students. Aylesworth found himself wanting to be a bigger part of this world of children's stories. And so he decided to write his own books, and has stuck with this goal ever since. During his quest to be published he collected many rejection letters. But his students encouraged him and told him to follow his own advice -- "Never give up!" Finally, his first work, Hush Up!, was published in 1980.
"Writing children's books," he says, "is my way of being the teacher beyond the walls of my classroom for children that I may never know."
Jim Aylesworth and his wife Donna raised two sons in Hinsdale. In 1996, Aylesworth decided to write and visit schools full-time. The Aylesworths moved to Chicago where Jim continues to write. He travels extensively to speak to children in schools and at book events across the United States.
Jim and Donna Aylesworth
Don't miss Jim's own look at life and writing in Jim Aylesworth and YOU
by Jim Aylesworth and Jennifer Rotole (Libraries Unlimited).