KATE DICAMILLO is the award-winning author of THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, THE TIGER RISING, and THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEYOF EDWARD TULANE. She says, "A long time ago, my best friend's son, Luke Bailey, put a toy pig in a toy car and pushed the car around the living room, screaming, 'Look, look, pig taking a ride! Pig taking a ride!' During the next few hours, this phrase was repeated with such shocking volume and intensity that it took up permanent residence in my brain. MERCY WATSON GOES FOR A RIDE is the direct product of Luke's obsession and mine, a decade or so after the fact. Look, Luke, pig taking a ride!"
CHRIS VAN DUSEN illustrated the first book in the Mercy Watson series, MERCY WATSON TO THE RESCUE. He says, "I have four brothers (no sisters!), and cars were a big part of my upbringing. So when I read this story about a wild car ride, I couldn't wait to get started. I made the Watson convertible a 1959 because I love old cars with lots of chrome, fins, and style. It was also great to visit these characters again. We're becoming good friends!"
The theme of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances is a common thread in much of Kate DiCamillo’s writing. In her instant #1 New York Times bestseller The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a haughty china rabbit undergoes a profound transformation after finding himself facedown on the ocean floor—lost, and waiting to be found. The Tale of Despereaux—the Newbery Medal–winning novel that later inspired an animated adventure from Universal Pictures—stars a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears who is driven by love to become an unlikely hero. And The Magician’s Elephant, an acclaimed and exquisitely paced fable, dares to ask the question, What if?
Kate DiCamillo’s own journey is something of a dream come true. After moving to Minnesota from Florida in her twenties, homesickness and a bitter winter helped inspire Because of Winn-Dixie—her first published novel, which, remarkably, became a runaway bestseller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. “After the Newbery committee called me, I spent the whole day walking into walls,” she says. “I was stunned. And very, very happy.”
Her second novel, The Tiger Rising, went on to become a National Book Award Finalist. Since then, the master storyteller has written for a wide range of ages. She is the author of six books in the Mercy Watson series of early chapter books, which stars a “porcine wonder” with an obsession for buttered toast. The second book in the series, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2007. She is also the co-author of the Bink and Gollie series, which celebrates the tall and short of a marvelous friendship. The first book, Bink&Gollie, was awarded the Theodor Seuss Giesel Award in 2011.
She also wrote a luminous holiday picture book, Great Joy.
Her novel Flora&Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures won the 2014 Newbery Medal. It was released in fall 2013 to great acclaim, including five starred reviews, and was an instant New York Times bestseller. Flora&Ulysses is a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black and white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell. It was a 2013 Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner and was chosen by Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Common Sense Media as a Best Book of the Year.
Kate DiCamillo, who was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2014–2015, says about stories, “When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.” Born in Philadelphia, the author lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a week.
