Life

Born in Philadelphia, DiCamillo suffered from chronic pneumonia. At age five, she moved to Clermont, Florida for her health (warmer climate) with her mother and her older brother Curt DiCamillo, who would become a noted architectural historian. Her mother was a teacher. Her father remained in Pennsylvania to sell his orthodontic practice and never rejoined the family in Florida.

DiCamillo earned her college degree in English at the University of Florida in 1987 and worked in Florida after graduation. At age 30 she moved to Minneapolis and began working at a book warehouse. That job inspired her to write for children and allowed her to meet a sales representative for Candlewick Press, resulting in submission of a draft that would become Because of Winn-Dixie.

Her 2003 novel The Tale of Despereaux was inspired by a friend's son, Luke Bailey, who asked her to write about an unlikely hero with "exceptionally large ears".

Recognition

DiCamillo won the American Library Association Newbery Medal recognizing the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in 2004 for The Tale of Desperaux and again in 2014 for Flora & Ulysses; only six writers have won two of the annual medals introduced in 1922. She won the 2000 Josette Frank Award for Because of Winn-Dixie and the 2006 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in the children's fiction category for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. She, co-writer Alison McGhee, and illustrator Tony Fucile won the ALA Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal in 2011 recognizing Bink and Gollie as the previous year's "most distinguished book for beginning readers".

In 2012 Winn-Dixie was ranked number 30 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. Despereaux (51) and Edward Tulane (59) also made the Top 100 list.

DiCamillo is the fourth U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Other

• 1998 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers
• 2001 Newbery Honor Book, Because of Winn-Dixie
• 2001 finalist, National Book Award for Young People's Literature, The Tiger Rising
• 2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, DiCamillo and illustrator Chris Van Dusen
• 2014 shortlist, Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, Flora & Ulysses

Adaptations

In 2005, Because of Winn-Dixie was released as a film by 20th Century Fox. Universal Pictures released The Tale of Despereaux on December 19, 2008. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was optioned by New Line Cinema and is in early pre-production. 20th Century Fox has hired Martin Hynes to write a script based on the book, The Magician's Elephant.

Works

Novels

• Because of Winn-Dixie (2000)
• The Tiger Rising (2001)
• The Tale of Despereaux (2003), illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006), illus. Bagram Ibatoulline
• The Magician's Elephant (2009), illus. Yoko Tanaka
• Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2013), illus. K. G. Campbell
• Raymie Nightingale (2016)

Chapter books

• Bink & Gollie series, text by DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illus. Tony Fucile
  • Bink & Gollie (2010)
  • Bink & Gollie: Two for One (2012)
• Mercy Watson series (Candlewick Press), text by DiCamillo, illus. Chris Van Dusen
  • Mercy Watson to the Rescue (2005)
  • Mercy Watson Fights Crime (2006)
  • Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride (2006)
  • Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise (2007)
  • Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig (2008)
  • Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes (2009)

Picture books

• Great Joy (2007), illus. Bagram Ibatoulline
• Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken (2008), illus. Harry Bliss

Short stories

• "An Ordinary Boy", in Spider magazine for children (vol. 8, issue 9, September 2001)
• "Super Tulip", Spider (vol. 8, issue 9, September 2001)
• "A Rowdy Visit", Spider (vol. 9, issue 1, January 2002)
• "The Third Floor Bedroom", in Chris Van Allsburg, et al., The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]