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 is married to Barry Furrow, a professor of Health Law at the Earle Mack School of Law of Drexel University. Here he is below in Montana, just before throwing that beauty back into the river. And here he is to the right, in the glory of Glacier National Park. |
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Donna Jo has five children. She dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist. She loves to garden and bake bread. | ||
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| At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. But dear dear Taxi died in 2009. | |||||
Taxi lives on, however, as a character in a series by Donna Jo and her son Robert Furrow (below on the right), about Sly, a wonderful sleuth. There are four volumes so far: SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE PET MYSTERIES (2005), SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE SPORTS MYSTERIES (2006), SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE FOOD MYSTERIES (2007), and SLY THE SLEUTH AND THE CODE MYSTERIES (2009).
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They are working on a picture book called THE GARDEN, which will come out when the illustrator finishes. Robert is a graduate student in mathematical biology at Stanford University and an avid birder. |  |
Her daughter Eva Furrow is a veterinarian (that's her doing surgery below on the left), and her husband, Neil, is a lawyer. Donna Jo and Eva 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. |  |
And on the right here is Eva with her husband Neil. 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, works for a nonprofit organization. But for many years, he designed lamps. Here are some of his creations. If you would like to buy a lamp, contact Nick. |  |
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If you want to read about him, go to: |
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He also did installations and will custom make lamps. If you would like to see more, go to his website: He is presently living and working in London, England. |
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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 and his wife Vanessa, who is also a lawyer, live in Manhattan. Whenever Mike can find the time, he plays soccer and dances. On the left you see them dancing at their wedding in June 2009. On the right you see them on their honeymoon.
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Her daughter, Elena Furrow, is a family practice doctor. She lives in Montana with her husband Rob, who is an emergency room doctor. Elena 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 (Bloomsbury, 2009). On the left 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. |
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On the left here are Elena, Rob, and their baby Hayden, born May 15, 2007. And below is Hayden at two and half with their daughter Aspen, born November 19, 2009. | |
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Below is Hayden on his first birthday:
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And on his second birthday:
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Below are all Donna Jo's children and their spouses and her two grandchildren on Christmas 2009:
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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 2009. For a comment about author's readings, go to June 2009.
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 four (one of which is in Italian), edited one, and co-edited four (with a fifth in press),
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.
Her novel ALLIGATOR BAYOU was the Parents' Choice Gold book for historical fiction. 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:
Doreen DeLuca was born in 1963 in New Jersey. She is a certified interpreter for the Deaf and is certified in Deaf Education. She is the mother of three. She is Donna Jo's friend and colleague. You can contact her at: Doreen
Elena Furrow was born in 1974 in Boston. She is a family practice physician in Montana. She is a mother and an artist. She is Donna Jo's daughter. You can contact her at: Elena
Eva Furrow was born in 1981 in Michigan. She is a veterinarian resident at a veterinary hospital in Minnesota. 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 mathematician and 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 is a mathematician, working at the Math Forum. He has also published in the area of environmental studies. You can contact him at: Richard
