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 Play School or to act in my backyard shows, charging the audience-all 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. Currently, I have begun work on my second picture book, to be published by the University of New Mexico Press. I will be the illustrator for this one, making the pictures from cut-paper collage, which is another thing I loved to do as a child: making pictures with crayons and scissors.

I am a dedicated storyteller, performing preschool stories twice a month at the Redding Barnes & Noble store and regularly at the Shasta County Library's main branch in Redding, and the Anderson Library. A longtime member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers, I enjoy sharing the American Indian myths and legends I have studied.

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 a sandbox of words, too.

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

Videos