McKy, Katie 1956-

Personal

Born August 28, 1956. Education: Harvard University, M.A. (education).

Addresses

Home and office—Eau Claire, WI. E-mail—katemcky@post.harvard.edu.

Career

Writer and educator. Worked previously teaching emotionally disturbed and learning-disabled children.

Writings

It All Began with a Bean, Tanglewood Press (Terre Haute, IN), 2004.

Tough Kids, Tough Classrooms, Teaching Point Press (Jacksonville, FL), 2004.

Pumpkin Town!; or, Nothing Is Better and Worse than Pumpkins, illustrated by Pablo Bernasconi, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Also contributor to periodicals.

Sidelights

As Katie McKy noted on her home page, two things have inspired her to write: "Adventures" and "playing with kids all those years." For over twenty years McKy taught learning-disabled children in various parts of the country, and her creative teaching method involved engaging with her students. Since her move from teacher to full-time author, McKy has produced several unique books for children, including It All Began with a Bean and Pumpkin Town!; or, Nothing Is Better and Worse than Pumpkins.

It All Began with a Bean was inspired by a question once posed by one of McKy's young students: What would happen if everyone in the world passed gas all at once? In her humorous picture book, McKy attempts to answer this provocative question. Piper L. Nyman, reviewing the book for School Library Journal, dubbed It All Began with a Bean "ridiculous to the extreme," adding that "the right audience is sure to get a laugh."

In Pumpkin Town! McKy takes on a milder topic: five brothers who throw pumpkin seeds into a field overlooking their town instead of selling the seeds as their father had instructed. The wind carries the pumpkin seeds throughout the town and what results is a small community over-populated with large, round pumpkins. A Kirkus Reviews critic described McKy's pumpkin tale as "a fun fable with Halloween overtones," while School Library Journal contributor Anne L. Tormohlen labeled the title "a good fall read-aloud, especially for those wanting to avoid Halloween-themed books."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Pumpkin Town!; or, Nothing Is Better and Worse than Pumpkins, p. 85.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, review of Pumpkin Town!, p. 908.

School Library Journal, February, 2005, Piper L. Nyman, review of It All Began with a Bean, p. 107; November, 2006, Anne L. Tormohlen, review of Pumpkin Town!, p. 105.

ONLINE

Houghton Mifflin Web site,http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/ (October 29, 2007), "Katie McKy."

Katie McKy Home Page,http://www.katiemcky.com (October 29, 2007).

Teaching Point Web site,http://www.teaching-point.net/ (October 29, 2007), "Tough Kids, Tough Classrooms."