Betsy Franco
Children's Book Author

  Home   My Works   Future Books    


Summer Beat

Birdsongs

Counting Our Way to the 100th Day!

Mathematickles!

You Hear Me?

Things I Have to Tell You

Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming

Conversations with a Poet

About the Author

NEWS:
I've gotten into comedy these days--writing and acting in SNL-type sketches with a group that's an offshoot from my Stanford drama class. We'll be performing at the Pear Avenue Theater August 1 and 2 in Mountain View, CA. And...Judd Apatow's crew came over to film my rebuttal to the Tobey the Cat incident in "Acting with James Franco, Lesson 1" on funnyordie.com. That was so much fun, I'm moving to LA to become an actor...just kidding. I'll let you know when the video's up.

I have one copy of FALLING HARD, 100 LOVE POEMS BY TEENAGERS and my fourth Candlewick Press anthology--I think it looks beautiful! The anthology is an uncensored discussion of love through poetry, due out in December.

My first young adut novel, METAMORPHOSIS, is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in fall 2009. My son Tom is the illustrator, and my actor sons, James and Dave, will read the audio version!

In August 2008, BEES, SNAILS, AND PEACOCK TAILS is coming out with Simon & Schuster. This is my second book illustrated by Caldecott Honor winnter, Steve Jenkins. I'm very lucky!

I'm also writing sketches for and acting in a comedy troupe, Door #3.

ABOUT ME:
I've written over eighty books for children and young adults—picture books, poetry collections, and nonfiction. I also write young adult novels and compile anthologies of teenage writing from across the country and around the world. I particularly love to show how exciting, sassy, and creative math can be, and how wise, honest, and insightful teenagers can be. I live in Palo Alto, California, with my husband Douglas. We have three sons, James, Thomas, and David--two actor/writers and a sculptor/illustrator.

My publishers include Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster, Candlewick Press, Scholastic, Harcourt, Grolier Children's Press, and Charles E. Tuttle. See featured books on this Web site. Other books include:

Conversations with a Poet, Richard C. Owen Publishers, consists of my personal philosophy about writing and teaching poetry, along with samples and guidelines for writing 16 poetry forms (see red cover to left)
"...must-have 21st century pathway to poetry..." Lee Bennett Hopkins
See www.rcowen.com for ordering.

Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming, stories and poems by American Indian teenagers and young adults, Candlewick Press

Math Poetry, Goodyear Books

My Pinkie Finger, Grolier Children's Press

Counting Caterpillars and Other Math Poems, Scholastic

See www.booksense.com and www.amazon.com for a more complete listing.

For school visits, e-mail francobe@aol.com.

"Betsy Franco inspires trust in the various people she meets in the course of her work as writer, poet, and anthologist."
Candlewick Press


"very gifted and inspirational as a teacher of young children..."
El Carmelo Elementary School


"You were a big hit with my students."
"I really liked it when you said you like working with teens."
"You were very inspiring and your dedication to art is a great influence to me with my music."
Los Altos High School


"It was very inspirational...I found it helpful because I'm an artistic person and I plan to live my life in an artistic way."
Stephanie, Palo Alto High School


Selected Works

1. picture book
Mathematickles!
"Word lovers might stand a better chance of becoming math lovers..."
-Horn Book, starred review
2. children's poetry
Counting Our Way to the 100th Day
"the bouncy, humorous poems include an amazing variety of math concepts ...delivered with a light touch"
--Kirkus Review
3. poetry anthologies
You Hear Me? poems and writing by teenage boys; Things I Have to Tell You, poems and writing by teenage girls
"...honest, raw and sometimes tender selections..."
-School Library Journal
4. picture book
Birdsongs
"Celebrate the free concert that birds perform..."



Find Authors

Created by The Authors Guild

A note for users of older versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, or AOL:
This site will look a lot better in a newer browser. Download one for free!
Internet Explorer: Windows Mac   |   Netscape: Windows Mac Other
For AOL users, please choose Internet Explorer above.