SMALLCOMB, Pam 1954-

Personal

Born 1954, in CA; married; husband's name Rick; children: four. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, reading, art.

Addresses

Home— MD. Agent— c/o Author Mail, Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010. E-mail— pam@pamsmallcomb.com.

Career

Children's book author.

Writings

Camp Buccaneer, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Reader (New York, NY), 2002.

The Last Burp of Mac McGerp, illustrated by Lizzy Bromley, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2003.

The Trimoni Twins and the Changing Coin, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Sidelights

A children's book author and a mother of four, Pam Smallcomb has loved reading ever since she was a little girl growing up in the Mojave desert of southern California. Her love of books was fueled by her mother, who took Smallcomb to the local Bookmobile to pick out books every week for reading aloud. Although Smallcomb set aside her interest in writing for several years, once her children got older and left her with time on her hands, she pulled out her laptop computer and began channeling her quirky sense of humor into prose. Smallcomb's books include Camp Buccaneer, The Last Burp of Mac McGerp, and The Trimoni Twins and the Changing Coin, the last a story about eleven-year-old sisters whose ability to do real magic draws the unwanted attention of the secretive magician the Great Paparelli.

Smallwood's first published book, Camp Buccaneer is a playful story of a young girl named Marion who finds herself stuck, yet again, at the lake with her boring parents for her entire summer vacation. One day, while her father is glued to the television and her mother is absorbed in yet another romance novel, Marion sets out on her own and discovers a camp run by authentic pirates. Enlisting for the summer session, she learns to sail a pirate ship, sing pirate songs, and climb pirate rigging into the crows' nest. Back behind a desk at the start of the new school year, she tries to share her experiences with her classmates but, surprisingly, no one will believe her, prompting her piratical friends to make an appearance and authenticate Marion's story. "The situation is novel and fun," wrote Todd Morning in a review of the chapter book for Booklist, while Elaine E. Knight, reviewing Camp Buccaneer for School Library Journal, dubbed the work a "lightweight [and] lighthearted" chapter book.

In The Last Burp of Mac McGerp Smallcomb once again sets out to amuse budding readers, this time with the saga of fifth-grade champion burper Mac McGerp. Mac is famous for his earth-moving burps, and when his school gets a new principle who bans all burping Mac decides that something must be done. "Readers in search of laughs will enjoy turning these pages," commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Ed Sullivan, writing in Booklist, called the book "a silly, enjoyable page-turner" sure to "appeal to middle-graders who love gross-out stories."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2002, Todd Morning, review of Camp Buccaneer, p. 1725; February 15, 2004, Ed Sullivan, review of The Last Burp of Mac McGerp, p. 1060.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2002, review of Camp Buccaneer, p. 741.

Publishers Weekly, October 6, 2003, review of The Last Burp of Mac McGerp, p. 84.

School Library Journal, June, 2002, Elaine E. Knight, review of Camp Buccaneer, p. 110; September, 2003, Steven Engelfried, review of The Last Burp of Mac McGerp, p. 220.

ONLINE

Bloomsbury Web site, http://www.bloomsbury.com/ (February 28, 2005).

Pam Smallcomb Web site, http://www.pamsmallcomb.com (February 28, 2005).*