An Author Study

 Denise was born in Toledo, Ohio.  She checked out three books each week from the library to read.  She spent weekends with her grandparents where she learned about flowers and the animals that lived in her grandmother’s garden.  Denise is married to David and has one daughter.  She wrote her first book when she was 41 years old.

 Denise is an author and an illustrator.  At first she illustrated other writer’s books.  Now she makes her own paper and creates her illustrations from that paper and uses them in the books she writes.

 When Denise gets an idea to write about, she jots it down quickly so she won’t forget it. She doesn’t worry about spelling or punctuation in her first draft.  She scribbles drawings in the margins to go with the writing.  Denise starts with many, many words and rewrites until she finds just the right ones, to use in her book.  Most of her books are about nature.

 Denise uses something called pulp painting to create her pictures. It’s a way to make paper.  She mixes water with cotton fibers.  Denise adds layer on top of layer to make her pictures.  She draws on the paper using colored pulp in a squeeze bottle.

 Denise uses squeeze bottles, and stencils she cuts from a type of foam.  View the video to learn more: hor/oct2008/fleming.htm  Read the following letter from Denise: hor/letters/letter_fleming.pdf

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