Goosed!

Bill Wallace is the author of many award-winning novels for grade-school and middle-grade readers. His stories, some set in the historic Old West and others taking place in the present day, offer adventure and a dash of comedy for young audiences. In many cases, animals play key roles, and sometimes are even the main characters of Wallace's books.Wallace once told SATA: "When I started teaching, I read a story to my class called Old Yeller. They really liked it and, when we finished, they wanted me to read another book. I tried three others that they wouldn't listen to. Trying to read to my class when they weren't listening wasn't much fun!"One of my students asked if I would tell stories about things that happened when I was their age. When I ran out of tales about me, they asked if I could make up some. These 'made up' stories got long enough to be books. My students really liked them and after I would read the manuscripts, they wanted to read them too. Finally, they talked me into sending the stories off to get somebody to make real books out of them. It took ten years before a company in New York City named Holiday House decided to publish one of my stories."I have been very blessed that kids throughout the country have voted my books their 'favorites' and given me numerous state awards. After trying for ten years and having grown-ups tell me the stories weren't any good, and reading some reviews where other grown-ups don't really like the stories all that much-it's really wonderful to have kids (for whom I wrote them in the first place) tell me that they like my books!"I get my ideas from lots of places. I remember things that happened when I was growing up. I listened to my kids when I was teaching school or doing lunchroom duty. At home, my own children sometimes give me ideas. My wife Carol used to teach second grade, but now she's a writer too. We work together in our home near Chickasha, Oklahoma. We have three kids: Justin, our son, Nikki, our middle daughter (she will have her first book published in 2000), and Laurie, our oldest. She has two daughters of her own: Kristine and Bethany. We also have five dogs: April, Mush, Midog, J.C., and Mike; one cat named Gray; and one horse, Dandy."Wallace, Bill is the author of 'Goosed!', published 2002 under ISBN 9780823417575 and ISBN 0823417573.