Here is a letter from Donna Jo to her readers, which answers lots of the questions that she gets. After the letter you can find her biography.
Dear Reader,
I love to write. I didn't grow up wanting to be a writer, but I'm so lucky that I stumbled across writing. Writing allows me to find out about the world. If I write a story about soccer, I get to go to soccer games for a while. If I write a story about lions, I get to visit the zoo and read about lions for a while and, if I'm extra super lucky, I get to go to Africa (which is what I did when I researched for the book BEAST). Writing is wonderful that way.
My favorite book that I've written for younger readers is THE BRAVEST THING (you can buy it through the Scholastic Book Club). My favorite book that I've written for older readers is BREATH (which Simon & Schuster sells). My favorite book for children that someone else wrote is A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. My favorite adult authors are Anne Tyler, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood. I have lots of favorite children's authors.
None of my books are autobiographical. But I often do get my ideas from real life. Something will happen and I will simply elaborate on it and change it and mold it until I have a story that feels new and exciting to me.
If you want to be a writer, I have advice for you. Write a lot. And write all kinds of things: poems, stories, essays, recipes, e-mails, letters, journals, anything. The more you write, the better you'll get at it.
Thank you for reading my books. You are the reason why I write.
Love,
Donna Jo
Short Biography: Donna Jo Napoli (biographies
of coauthors follow)
Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's fiction.
She has five children. She loves to garden and bake bread. And she takes modern dance and Yoga courses. Sometimes she dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist. At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. Right now she has only a cat named Taxi. She likes to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder.
Taxi (below on the left) is a character in a new series by Donna Jo and her son Robert Furrow (below on the right), about Sly, a wonderful sleuth. The first volume (2005) is called SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE PET MYSTERIES. The second volume, SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE SPORTS MYSTERIES, came out in 2006.The third, SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE FOOD
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MYSTERIES, came out in 2007. They are working on SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE CODE MYSTERIES. Robert graduated college in math, and is working in a museum of natural history. He's an avid birder. | |
Her daughter Eva Furrow is a veterinarian (that's her doing surgery below on the left). They have written together BOBBY THE BOLD, about a bonobo that uses some sign language. It came out in 2006.
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Eva has also written CHICKEN PLEASE, which will come out when the illustrator finishes her part. On the left is Eva's dog, Baci. Maybe she'll appear in stories soon. On the right is Eva's cat, Ino, when he was a kitty. |  |
By the way, Eva has as great an interest in frogs as Donna Jo does. If you want to read a biology article coauthored by her, click here and scroll down till you get to "research articles" and go to the second article | ||
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| Her son, Nicholas Furrow, designs lamps. His studio is in Brooklyn, NY. Here are some of his creations. If you would like to buy a lamp, contact Nick. |  |
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To buy either of these two lamps. « or ». |
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He also does installations and will custom make lamps. If you would like to see more, go to his website: If you want to read about him, go to: |
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Her son, Michael Furrow, has a Ph.D. in chemistry and is a lawyer, with a focus on intellectual property (working with chemistry patents, among other things). He's a serious soccer player and used to do competitive ballroom dancing, but now dances only for fun.
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Her daughter, Elena Furrow, is a physician, who is trained for the urban underserved. She and Donna Jo have written a story called READY TO DREAM, which is set in Australia, where the two of them (as well as the rest of the family) spent many weeks in the summers of 1992 and 1997. It will come out when the illustrator has finished her part. On the side here you can see Elena and her husband Rob's dog, Jack, being dramatic in the snow. Below him you can see their dog, Mouse, when she was teeny. And on the other side are Elena, Rob, and their baby Hayden, born May 15, 2007. And here's Hayden on his first birthday: |
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| This rabbit was drawn by Nina White, a good friend of Donna Jo's and Robert's. |  |
She also drew this border collie. |  |
And this baby bonobo. If you are an editor and want to use her for illustrations, tell Donna Jo. |  |
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These are photos of a fox Donna Jo's family loves. |  |
Maybe someday she'll write a fox story. |  |
Donna Jo's novel BEAST (2000) took place in Persia in 1500. It was translated into Farsi, the language of Iran (the land we used to call Persia). Because of this, in February and March, 2005, Donna Jo got invited to Iran, to give a talk at a children's literature festival. You can read about that visit by clicking here.
The rest of this biography is mostly for educators. For an interview with the author , go to interview 2003 . For another, go to interview 1999 .
She lives outside Philadelphia. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and
her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University,
then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She has since taught linguistics
at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown
University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College.
It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in
1984). She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia),
the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and Capital Normal University of Beijing
(China), as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie
University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa),
and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). In the area of linguistics
she has authored five books (one of which is being translated into Korean),
co-authored three (one of which is in Italian), edited one, and co-edited three,
ranging from theoretical linguistics to practical matters in language structure
and use, including matters of interest to d/Deaf people. She has held grants
and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation.
In the area of novel writing, she held a grant from the American Association
of University Women for research pursuant to fiction writing. She won a Leeway
Foundation Award for Excellence in Fiction Writing in 1995. Her novel THE PRINCE
OF THE POND (1992) won the New Jersey Reading Association Award for 1997. Her
novel STONES IN WATER (1997) won the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's
Book Writers and Illustrators in 1998 and the Sydney Taylor Book Award from
the National Association of Jewish Libraries for 1998. She received the Drexel
University/Free Library of Philadelphia Children's Literature Citation for 1998.
Her picture book ALBERT won the Kentucky Bluegrass Award for 2003. Her novel
BREATH won the honor book for the Golden Kite Award in 2003. Four of her novels
have been honor books for the Carolyn W. Field Award of the Pennsylvania Library
Association: STONES IN WATER, SPINNERS (coauthored with Richard Tchen), BEAST,
FIRE IN THE HILLS. Her novel DAUGHTER OF VENICE won the Nevada Young Readers
Award for 2004. Her novel NORTH was a Parents' Choice Silver Honor book, as
was her novel THE KING OF MULBERRY STREET, which was also an honor book for
the Sydney Taylor Book Award and a Sons of Italy National Book Club selection.
She received a Literary Lights for Children Award from the Boston Public Library
in 2007.
In the area of short story writing, she has two retellings of Italian tales: "Sweet Giongio" in DIANE GOODE'S BOOKS OF SILLY STORIES & SONGS, Dutton, 1992, pp. 41-48 (ISBN 0-525-44967-1) and "Little Lella" in DIANE GOODE'S BOOK OF GIANTS AND LITTLE PEOPLE, Dutton, 1997, pp. 48-53 (ISBN 0-525-45660-0). She also has the story "So many first kisses" in Cylin Busby's (ed.) FIRST KISS (THEN TELL) anthology, Bloomsbury, 2008, pp. 193-201 (ISBN 978-1-59990-199-2).
In the area of poetry, she has contributed poems to seven anthologies by linguists and been coeditor of five. She also has a poem for children, "Twelve" in ON HER WAY, edited by Sandy Asher, Dutton, 2004, pp. 84-85 (ISBN 0-525-47170-7).
She has written several essays about children's literature and writing for children. She has also written book reviews about children's fiction.
She ran a conference on deaf issues in 2004. To see the program click here
She ran a conference on deaf issues in 2008. To see the program click here
Short Biographies of coauthors:
Eva Furrow was born in 1981 in Michigan. She is a veterinarian intern at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an artist, an animal-lover, and a scientist. She is Donna Jo's daughter. You can contact her at: Eva
Robert Furrow was born in 1985 in Michigan. He is a conservationist. He loves singing, trumpet, soccer, and ornithology. He is Donna Jo's son. You can contact him at: Robert.
Shelagh Johnston was born in 1958 in Alberta, Canada.. She is a bio-medical engineer and the mother of three. She loves baboons. You can contact her at: Shelagh.
Marie Kane was born in 1944 in New York and died in 1996 in Miami, FL. She was an R.N. and the mother of three, and once had a dog named Rocky, who served as the model for the dog in ROCKY THE CAT WHO BARKS. She was Donna Jo's sister.
Richard Tchen was born in 1973 in California. He has a BA in mathematics from Swarthmore College and he works at the Math Forum, an on-line mathematics education service. He has published in the area of environmental studies, as well as in fiction. You can contact him at: Richard
