That magical sense of wonder

  “I've read up on magic, and I think it sets you free, and it gives you hope. You can explore worlds you didn't know existed. It stretches your imagination, and I like my own imagination to be stretched and also the children I'm telling the story to. It gives you a sense of wonder.” – Jenny Nimmo

British author Jenny Nimmo, born on this day in 1944, has stretched kids’ imagination for 60 years, writing dozens of fantasy and magical adventure books for children.   Her two major series of fantasy novels:  The Magician Trilogy in the late 1980s and Children of the Red King, from 2002-2010, are her best-known (and award-winning) books that have earned her loyal readers around the globe.  The latter series has now been published in 9 languages.

While she was born in England, she has lived in Wales for most of her writing life, and many of her books are based in Welsh myth.  An only child, her father died when she was 5 and she escaped her grief by becoming first a voracious reader and then a devoted writer.   

Writing first for herself, she soon 

realized she had the talent to also              entertain others with her 

words, and she’s been doing so since age 15.

She said she gravitated toward writing fantasty because she always thought a magical world would be, for most kids, a special place to think about visiting.

“Every book that you pick up takes you a step away from your real world,” she said, “but if you read a book about magic, it takes you an extra two steps.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking g+1 below.