ABOUT SUZIE -JEAN
Hi out there, and welcome to my authorsite. I would like to tell you about myself.
This is a picture of me
I was born on December 23, 1944. It was a special day for me and my mother.
Guess what!
December 23rd is my mom's birthday too.
She always said that I was her best birthday gift.
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I have a sister Dena, who is 3 years older than I am
I have a younger brother named Jay. In this picture, Jay is speaking with Dena. The picture was taken in January, 2006.
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This picture was also taken in January, 2006.
I was born in New York City, and have lived there my whole life.
When I was young, we lived on Arnow Avenue in the Bronx.The Bronx is part of New York City.
There were loads of kids on my street.
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This is a picture of my house
on Arnow Ave.My favorite thing to do was catch fireflies.
We used to call them lightening bugs.
We would put them in a jar.It was fun to watch the jar light up. Then we would let the bugs go.We had a lot of fun.
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I liked going to school.
I remember elementary school.
I went to P.S. 121.P.S. stands for
Public School.
I went to Junior High School, 113, and then to
Evander High school.
After high school I went to Hunter College.
In college , I studied history and education.
My goal was to become a teacher
I wanted to work with young children.When I was older, I worked in the library.
Reading my stories to the children is fun.
I am telling one of my WillySilly stories
using a Kamishibai stage.*
I went to graduate school too.I went to New York University. New York University is also called NYU. I received a Masters Degree in history.
I met my husband Mel at NYU. He was studying for his PhD in history.
This is a picture of Mel when he was teaching at the Bronx High School of Science.
The subject was "The West in American History."We had a great teacher named Professor Still.
Mel became a teacher too.He taught history at The Bronx High School of Science. He then taught in college for awhile. He also works as a trainer for College Board.
We have been married now for more than 36 years. We have two children , Andy and Ilana. I am very proud of the
children's picture book story Ilana wrote. I know that children would love it. It is called---When Andy was young, he wrote a long poem called
The Magic Kingdom. All the words in the poem were his.
We helped edit the rhythm in parts. He was eight years old then. He never finished it, so I completed it for his 22nd birthday.*
This is a picture of me with my husband , Ilana and Andy
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When my children were young, I began working asa librarian at the
Kinneret is a school in the Bronx, New York.
I am still the librarian at the school.
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I have also worked on at the Yeshivah of Flatbush and at P.S. 110 in Manhattan, New York City. To see some of the work done by the children, click on PROJECTS.
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Working with children in the library and in classrooms has helped me learn all about books for children. I love the picture books best of all.
I guess that is why I now write my own picture book stories.I do not draw the pictures.
I only write the stories. I love writing stories.
It is a lot of fun.The first story I ever wrote is is called Pat's Cat and Cat's Pat.
I wrote it a long time ago. My daughter drew the pictures for the story. She was only 5 years old then.I did not write any other stories for a long time.
Then one day in the year 2002, I was cleaning my closet. I found the story we did together.I thought that it would be a good story for the 1st grade at my school. The children in the 1st grade are learning to read.
PAT'S CAT AND CAT'S PAT is an Emergent Reader story with very few words.
Then I wrote another Beginner Reader Story for our 1st grade.
I wrote AT THE ZOO WITH MISS NOODLE.
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In 2003, I started writing picture books with rhyming words. My first rhyming story is called The Legend of Long Bearded Bill.
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Since then, I have written many stories.
Some are in rhyme and some are not in rhyme.I hope that all of you children will have fun reading and writing too. Maybe you will write your own stories and books.
I hope so!
I also enjoy writing songs for children. I have written several songs including songs about animals
I have a friend who is a poet. You can see some of
her poems on her wonderful website. Click here
to visit.*
For many years, I was close friends with
Dr. Julie Reece. Julie was a holocaust survivor
who spent her entire adult life trying to help
other people.She helped me so much, and I
was close to her until she passed away at the
age of 91.I met a wonderful person through Julie.
Her name is Charlotte.Charlotte is a wonderful
artist who works in multimedia.If you would like
to see some of her beautiful works, click on Charlotte.I love art history. I go to museums,especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I love looking at the
paintings. My favorite painting is called"In the Meadow."
It was painted by a French artist named Renoir.*
If someone asked me what my life's work is, I would say "writing stories."
However, I also like making craft projects, especially miniature scenes. I like making dolls too, and made my
first doll when I was l8 years old. Now I make all sorts of dolls.If you would like to see some pictures of my dolls, click on Dolls.on DOLLS.Sometimes I put on puppet shows for the children.
This is an old Jewish European Folktale.
I am calling it "The Rabbi Helps Out."
There are other names for the story too.
I wrote a poem that goes with the story.Would you like to read it?
Then click on poem.
I like to be creative.
I hope you like to be creative too.Think of some great ideas!
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