PamZ on Squidoo

Pam began writing fiction and nonfiction for children after her two boys were born. Her work has appeared in Highlights for Children, Ladybug, Guideposts for Kids, Humpty Dumpty, Child Life, My Friend, The Friend, Jack and Jill, Hopscotch, and Boys' Quest magazines. Her stories have won awards in various contests. "Millie's Garden" won the 1996 Highlights for Children Fiction Contest and...

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Pam began writing fiction and nonfiction for children after her two boys were born. Her work has appeared in Highlights for Children, Ladybug, Guideposts for Kids, Humpty Dumpty, Child Life, My Friend, The Friend, Jack and Jill, Hopscotch, and Boys' Quest magazines. Her stories have won awards in various contests. "Millie's Garden" won the 1996 Highlights for Children Fiction Contest and was in the July 1997 issue. Her stories have been used for language arts assessment tests for reading comprehension. She's written short stories and articles for textbook publishers.

Her middle-grade novel, Don't Bug Me!, was published by Holiday House in 2001 and was nominated for Florida's Sunshine State Young Readers' Choice Award. It was also in the Florida Battle of the Books. Bank Street College of Education named it as one of the Best Books of 2002. It has been translated into other languages, including Korean.

Pam has written 39 other books, both fiction and nonfiction, for Scholastic Rookie Readers, Children's Press, Harcourt, Rigby, Steck-Vaughn, Pearson Quick Picks Library, Pearson/Celebration Press, Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, Options, and Enslow. Her life cycle series for Scholastic have recently been translated into Spanish. A Chick Grows Up (Scholastic 2005) was an honor book for the Maryland Blue Crab Readers Choice Award in 2006.

Pam has been a technical editor for Boeing Aerospace Company, a contract editor for St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, and has freelance-edited for Harcourt and Steck-Vaughn. From 2002-2004, she was an assistant editor for Highlights for Children. There she edited the young nonfiction and the "You Can Make It!" crafts pages. She was the fiction (both older and younger) back-up editor, remade all the crafts, coordinated photo sessions with area kids, judged in the annual fiction contest, reviewed manuscripts for both Highlights and Boyds Mills Press, edited the Highlights Foundation web page (www.highlightsfoundation.org), reviewed sketches and artwork, as well as spoke (and critiqued manuscripts) at conferences, workshops, and schools. She writes and edits for the educational market on a freelance basis now, and is working on another novel.

She belongs to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as several other writers' organizations. She was the project coordinator for the national SCBWI's Magazine Market Guides from 1995 until 2002. From 1997-2001, Pam spoke at the national SCBWI conference in California about writing for the children's magazine market. She taught writing courses through Leisure Learning Unlimited, Inc., and Tomball College Continuing Education in Houston, TX, and through Marywood University in Scranton, PA. Each year Pam speaks to various schools and writers' clubs, as well as judges writing contests and critiques manuscripts. For ten years she read weekly to third graders at Hancock Elementary in Houston, was a cub scout den leader for eight years, and worked with children of all ages at Playhouse 1960's Children's Theater.