- Article Heading
- SMITH, JANICE LEE
May 12, 1949- Author of: The Kid Next Door and Other Headaches, etc.
- Publication Statement
- 1996 Biography from Seventh Book of
Junior Authors and Illustrators --1999 update
- Full Text
- [Autobiographical sketch of Janice Lee
Smith]
I HAD the great good sense to be born into a wonderful town of
storytellers, liars, eccentrics, and scoundrels. Minneola, Kansas,
population 700, was neighbor to Dodge City and was steeped in the lore
and character of the Old West. When I was a child, there were still
lots of those around who claimed to have fought the battles of
settling the high prairie, known the famous and infamous, and been
eyewitnesses to astounding things. It was folklore at its funniest and
most outrageous, and our daily lives were filled with stories,
legends, and amazing lies.
Naturally, I started telling great whopping stories myself when I was
very young. Unable to find a satisfactory audience who would sit still
and listen for hours, I would wage kidnapping campaigns, luring or
dragging every dog, cat, and small child within range into my
playhouse to serve as a captive audience. I would then sit on them to
improve their listening skills.
My favorite scoundrel was my best friend, Jimmy, the proverbial kid
next door. Two years older than I, he had a scientific mind, a kind
heart, and a wicked sense of humor, all reasons we were often in
trouble. When I was four, after a day of listening to me grumble about
the fact that my long curly hair wouldn't fit beneath my cowboy hat,
he neatly solved the problem by cutting it all off for me. I was
absolutely delighted at the fit of my hat and, forgetting reality,
strutted in to show my mother. When I finally made it out of the house
again, I went looking for Jimmy to share a little reality. I got
revenge by sitting on him and making him eat a box of dog biscuits. I
got even better revenge by marrying him when we grew up.
Married at nineteen to an up-and-coming corporate whiz kid meant a lot
of moves, so it took me eight years, two babies, and four colleges to
get my degree. I graduated from Douglass College of Rutgers University
in 1977. I won a Mademoiselle magazine Guest Editorship the same year,
and spent a wonderful month in New York, being introduced to the
literary scene. Sylvia Plath had recorded the same experience in The
Bell Jar. She didn't have as much fun, but then she wasn't on a
vacation from two preschoolers. A lovely result of the month was a
first book about a boy named Adam Joshua signed with HarperCollins,
and the editorial mentoring of Charlotte Zolotow.
Our two children, Bryan and Jaymi, take after their father and are
nicely eccentric. They became hilarious inspirations for my books, and
I found I never even had to leave my house to come up with ideas that
delighted me. After walking by the bathroom door and seeing Jaymi, age
four, in the bathtub with her boots on, I put Nelson in the bathtub
wearing boots. After weeks of chuckling through Bryan's Superman
phase, I wrote a story called The Superman Kid. While no one character
is modeled on a particular child, personality quirks and traits from
each member of our family show up in all my book people.
I loved having a way to chronicle my children's lives as they grew,
and they gleefully endured having a mother who laughed and took notes
about their escapades rather than yelling. With Bryan and Jaymi grown
now, I rely on my notes about them to get a funny perspective on the
world for my books. I am also waiting, as patiently as possible, for
nicely eccentric grandchildren.
[End of autobiographical sketch of Janice Lee Smith]
Janice Lee Smith graduated magna cum laude from Rutgers. She has been
writing since 1978. She has also worked in Lee-Smith Enterprises, a
land development company, since 1988. She is a member of the Society
of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She received a Bread Loaf
Conference Scholarship in 1981 for children's writing and a Bread Loaf
Fellowship in 1982. She received a Master Fellowship Grant from the
Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts in
1984, for The Show-and-Tell War.
The Show-and-Tell War and The Kid Next Door were both named Children's
Choice Books by a joint committee of the Children's Book Council and
the International Reading Association.
- Works by subject
- Selected Works: The Monster in the Third
Dresser Drawer and Other Stories About Adam Joshua, 1981; The Kid Next
Door and Other Headaches: More Stories About Adam Joshua, 1984; The
Show-and-Tell War and Other Stories About Adam Joshua, 1988; It's Not
Easy Being George: Stories About Adam Joshua (And His Dog) 1989; The
Turkeys' Side of It: Adam Joshua's Thanksgiving, 1990; There's a Ghost
in the Coatroom: Adam Joshua's Christmas, 1991; Nelson in Love: An
Adam Joshua Valentine's Day Story, 1992; Serious Science: An Adam
Joshua Story, 1993; The Baby Blues, 1994; Wizard and Wart, 1994;
Wizard and Wart at Sea, 1995.
- Works about subject
- Suggested Reading: Indianapolis News
August 7, 1984; Something About the Author, Vol. 54.
- Subject of Biography
- SMITH-JANICE-LEE
- Genre
- Children's-writers
- Profession
- children's-writers; WRITERS-
- Place of Origin
- Kansas-; UNITED-STATES; NORTH-AMERICA
- Title of Works
- -The-Monster-in-the-Third-Dresser-Drawer-and-Other-
- Stories-About-Adam-Joshua;
The-Kid-Next-Door-and-Other-Headaches-More-Stories-
- About-Adam-Joshua;
The-Show-and-Tell-War-and-Other-Stories-About-Adam-Joshua;
It's-Not-Easy-Being-George-Stories-About-Adam-Joshua;
The-Turkeys'-Side-of-It-Adam-Joshua's-Thanksgiving;
There's-a-Ghost-in-the-Coatroom-Adam-Joshua's-Christmas;
Nelson-in-Love-An-Adam-Joshua-Valentine's-Day-Story;
Serious-Science-An-Adam-Joshua-Story; The-Baby-Blues; Wizard-and-Wart;
Wizard-and-Wart-at-Sea
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