Welcome, Friends, to My Website!

I'm Redding, California, author and storyteller, Linda Boyden, and I grew up playing in a sandbox of words. I imagined plays for my dolls to perform and told myself stories to fall asleep by. I bribed neighborhood friends to be students at my imaginary school or to act in my backyard shows, charging the audience--our mothers--a penny admission price, which we spent afterwards on goodies from the corner store.

I became a teacher, but after many wonderful years of working with primary students, I abandoned full-time teaching for full-time writing. My first picture book, "The Blue Roses ," debuted in 2002 from Lee and Low Books by winning their first New Voices Award. Since then it has won two other national awards and was included on the CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center) 2003 Choices list of recommended titles. My second book, "Powwow's Coming ," was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2007. I illustrated it making the pictures from cut-paper collage, which is another thing I loved to do as a child: making pictures with crayons and scissors. Book #3 (2010) is also from the University of New Mexico Press, "Giveaways: An ABC Book of Loanwords from the Americas ," and again I was lucky enough to do the illustrations.

I am a dedicated storyteller, performing preschool stories monthly at both the Redding Barnes & Noble store and the Redding Library. Often my audiences are large and most are under the age of four, so I do my best to keep the programs lively and fun...but sneak in something educational, too.

A "recovering schoolteacher" with over thirty years of experience, I have spent most of my adult life leading children to literacy. I enjoy performing at schools and working with students, encouraging them to play in their own sandboxes of words. I am a longtime member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers.

Thanks for stopping by. Look around, enjoy, and come back soon!

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