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A master of imaginary worlds, Elisa Kleven is the author/illustrator of highly-praised children's books, including The Paper Princess and The Lion and the Little Red Bird. In addition, her signature collage-illustration work includes the following credits, among many others: Our Big Home, by Linda Glaser; Abuela and Isla, by Arthur Dorros; and De Colores, an anthology of Latin American folk songs selected by Jose-Luis Orozco. Her most recent work can be seen in Wish: Wishing Traditions Around the World, by Roseanne Thong.

She lives near San Francisco with her husband, daughter, son, dogs and cats.
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Quotations taken from her interview with PaperTigers:

"Art has always been a part of my life. I was the  kid who would be drawing paper dolls on the back of my math worksheets in second grade,  and the college freshman who, between writing long papers,  batiked Ukranian eggs or wove tapestries in her dorm room. After graduating from Berkeley I became a teacher  and, though I enjoyed  it,  my inner life kept  pestering me to help it get out in the form of stories and pictures.  So one summer I decided to devote myself to making dummy books of  manuscripts I had written.  And from there I went on to become a full time illustrator/writer of picture books."

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"My childhood was one big imaginary adventure, in that I was constantly pretending and playing.  While I rode in the car, on L.A. streets and freeways, I'd pretend I was in a covered wagon with Laura and Mary from the Little House books. When I rode my bike, I'd imagine I was  riding on  my wild mustang, Ginger. Trolls and fairies lived in the orange trees in my yard. On my website I have some pictures of the miniature worlds I made as a child. And I'm still creating imaginary worlds, to this day - thinking up characters and building stories and settings around them."

Posted February 2009

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