Jamie Gilson
Encyclopedia
Jamie Gilson is an American
author
of twenty children’s books
. Explaining her approach to writing, Gilson says, “I watch what kids are doing and write stories based on what I see.”
on July 4, 1933. She lived in several Midwestern
towns growing up, including Boonville, Missouri
, Pittsfield, Illinois
, Independence, Missouri
, and Oak Park, Illinois
.
In 1951, she graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School
in Oak Park, Illinois. She attended the University of Missouri
and graduated from Northwestern University
’s School of Speech
.
She is married to trademark
attorney Jerome Gilson
and has three adult children, Tom, Matthew and Anne. She lives in a suburb of Chicago.
in Chicago. Next, she wrote commercials for radio station WFMT
in Chicago, as well as writing films and film strips for Encyclopædia Britannica
Films. Gilson also wrote the monthly “Goods” column and other articles for Chicago magazine
for ten years. She published her first book for children in 1978, “Harvey the Beer Can King.”
, with the exception of Stink Alley, a story of the Pilgrims set in seventeenth-century Holland. Sam Mott, the sixth-grade narrator of her book "Do Bananas Chew Gum?", comes to terms with his dyslexia
, and Harvey Trumble, a seventh-grader, encounters some difficulties trying to Americanize a young Vietnam
ese refugee in Hello, My Name is Scrambled Eggs. Drawing on her own experience as an award-winner at the Pillsbury Bake-Off
in 1954 for her "American Piece-A-Pie" recipe, her Can't Catch Me, I'm the Gingerbread Man features twelve-year-old Mitch McDandel, the only male contestant in a national bake-a-thon. In Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, the girls and boys in Room 4B compete to see who can make their substitute teacher
cry first. Several of her books (including 4B Goes Wild, the sequel to Thirteen Ways) feature the adventures of fifth-grader Hobie Hanson, and her most recent books center on Richard and Patrick, second graders in Mrs. Zookey's class.
Gilson gets many of her ideas from her local elementary school, Central School in Wilmette, Illinois
, attended by each of her three children.
for her book Do Bananas Chew Gum? Previous honorees include David Mamet
, John Updike
, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
, Kurt Vonnegut
and Joyce Carol Oates
.
Gilson has also received several children-voted awards for Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, including the Buckeye Children’s Book Award in 1987, the Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award
in 1985, and the Sequoyah Book Award
in 1985. She received the Charlie May Simon Award, also child-voted, for Do Bananas Chew Gum? in 1981.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of twenty children’s books
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. Explaining her approach to writing, Gilson says, “I watch what kids are doing and write stories based on what I see.”
Life
Jamie Gilson was born Jamie Marie Chisam in Beardstown, IllinoisBeardstown, Illinois
Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,123 at the 2010 census. The public schools are in Beardstown Community Unit School District 15.-Geography:Beardstown is located at...
on July 4, 1933. She lived in several Midwestern
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
towns growing up, including Boonville, Missouri
Boonville, Missouri
This page is about the city in Missouri. For other communities of the same name, see Boonville Boonville is a city in Cooper County, Missouri, USA. The population was 8,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cooper County. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil...
, Pittsfield, Illinois
Pittsfield, Illinois
Pittsfield is a city in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,211 at the 2000 census.-History:The city was named after Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It is the county seat of Pike County...
, Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, and Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
.
In 1951, she graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School
Oak Park and River Forest High School
Oak Park and River Forest High School, or OPRF, is a public four-year high school located in Oak Park, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is the only school of Oak Park and River Forest District 200....
in Oak Park, Illinois. She attended the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
and graduated from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
’s School of Speech
Northwestern University School of Communication
The Northwestern University School of Communication is an undergraduate and graduate institution devoted to the academic study of communication arts and sciences, located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, about 12 miles north of downtown Chicago.The School has its origins...
.
She is married to trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
attorney Jerome Gilson
Jerome Gilson
Jerome Gilson is an American trademark lawyer and author of a multivolume treatise on trademark law.- Life:Jerome Gilson was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 12, 1931....
and has three adult children, Tom, Matthew and Anne. She lives in a suburb of Chicago.
Career
Gilson taught junior high school for a year, then wrote, produced, and acted in educational radio programs for radio station WBEZChicago Public Radio
WBEZ is a noncommercial, public radio station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois. Financed primarily by listener contributions, the station is affiliated with both National Public Radio and Public Radio International; they also broadcast content from American Public Media...
in Chicago. Next, she wrote commercials for radio station WFMT
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
in Chicago, as well as writing films and film strips for Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
Films. Gilson also wrote the monthly “Goods” column and other articles for Chicago magazine
Chicago (magazine)
Chicago is a monthly magazine published by the Tribune Company. It concentrates on lifestyle and human interest stories, and on reviewing restaurants, travel, fashion, and theatre from or nearby Chicago. Its circulation in 2004 was 165,000, larger than People in its market...
for ten years. She published her first book for children in 1978, “Harvey the Beer Can King.”
Books
Most of Gilson's books are humorous contemporary fiction set in IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, with the exception of Stink Alley, a story of the Pilgrims set in seventeenth-century Holland. Sam Mott, the sixth-grade narrator of her book "Do Bananas Chew Gum?", comes to terms with his dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, and Harvey Trumble, a seventh-grader, encounters some difficulties trying to Americanize a young Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese refugee in Hello, My Name is Scrambled Eggs. Drawing on her own experience as an award-winner at the Pillsbury Bake-Off
Pillsbury Bake-Off
The Pillsbury Bake-Off is a cooking contest, first run by Pillsbury Company from 1949 to 1976 as an annual contest. Since then, the contest has been held biennially.-History:...
in 1954 for her "American Piece-A-Pie" recipe, her Can't Catch Me, I'm the Gingerbread Man features twelve-year-old Mitch McDandel, the only male contestant in a national bake-a-thon. In Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, the girls and boys in Room 4B compete to see who can make their substitute teacher
Substitute teacher
A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is unavailable; e.g., because of illness, personal leave, or other reasons. "Substitute teacher" is the most commonly used phrase in the United States, Canada and Ireland, while supply teacher is the most commonly...
cry first. Several of her books (including 4B Goes Wild, the sequel to Thirteen Ways) feature the adventures of fifth-grader Hobie Hanson, and her most recent books center on Richard and Patrick, second graders in Mrs. Zookey's class.
Gilson gets many of her ideas from her local elementary school, Central School in Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located north of Chicago's downtown district and has a population of 27,651. Wilmette is considered a bedroom community in the North Shore district...
, attended by each of her three children.
Acclaim
Jamie Gilson has received many awards for her children’s books. In 2005, she received the Prairie State Award for Excellence in Writing for Children, presented by the Illinois Reading Council. She received the Society of Midland Authors Award for Children’s Fiction for her book Stink Alley in 2003. In 1981, Gilson received the Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public LibraryChicago Public Library
The Chicago Public Library is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 79 branches, including a central library, two regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the city....
for her book Do Bananas Chew Gum? Previous honorees include David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
, John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
and Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
.
Gilson has also received several children-voted awards for Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, including the Buckeye Children’s Book Award in 1987, the Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award
Young Reader's Choice Award
The Young Reader's Choice Award is an annual book award chosen by students from the Pacific Northwest. It is run by the Pacific Northwest Library Association, and was established in 1940, making it the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada....
in 1985, and the Sequoyah Book Award
Sequoyah Book Award
The Sequoyah Children's Book Award is given each year to the book that is selected by Oklahoma students in 3rd-5th grades as their favorite. The Sequoyah Young Adult Award , which is voted for by Oklahoma students in 6th-8th grades, was created in 1988...
in 1985. She received the Charlie May Simon Award, also child-voted, for Do Bananas Chew Gum? in 1981.