HOW I CAME TO BE A WRITER, is a biography with some writing instruction, and one writer's personal publication story woven in. Naylor, the Newbery-winning author of SHILOH and many other popular books, here writes about her early efforts, rejections, and successes.

Naylor explains that her mother came from Iowa and her father's parents moved from Mississippi to live in Maryland. Having roots in both the Midwest and the Deep South made her family a little different, and she discusses this contrast in cultures. Her family and their backgrounds also helped to shape Naylor's thinking and inspire the settings of her stories. Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana, in 1933. Times were hard everywhere in the US as this was the Great Depression, but Naylor's parents always made certain that books were a part of their lives. Her parents read to her and her siblings every night, and books were the toys and props the children used when they played.

As a child, Naylor never imagined that she would grow up to be a writer, mostly because she enjoyed writing too much! She imagined that occupations were serious things, not something that one loved to do. She wrote stories and stapled together homemade books throughout her childhood with no thought that she would ever write for a living. At age 16, Naylor published her first story. She then assumed writing would be a breeze, but she discovered through rejection and failure that a writer's life was far from easy. Learning to write well and get paid for it would be every bit as hard as learning any other occupation.

In this book, Reynolds Naylor includes pictures of herself and her family, plus pictures of her book covers. She tells how the ideas for her books come to her, including how she organizes the vast amount of materials she uses in researching her books. For example, she got the idea for SHILOH from a very real little dog. I think you'll enjoy reading about her experiences in choosing her life's occupation and developing her skills. Reynolds Naylor has written a wide range of books and stories, and you can sample them in this book. HOW I CAME TO BE A WRITER will give you a very real picture of how a person --- maybe you! --- can become a writer and create the books we all love to read.

   --- Reviewed by Tamara Penny