Picture book author Jim Aylesworth tells his stories with generous doses of loud sounds, rhythms and rhymes. His experiences as a teacher have taught him that these are the elements children like in a story, especially when it is being read aloud. So, in Hanna's Hog, Aylesworth includes a loud hog call, in The Completed Hickory Dickory Dock, he offers numerous bouncy nonsensical rhymes, in Country Crossing, the sounds of the still countryside and a train passing fill the night, and in Old Black Fly, a repetitious, rhythmic chant follows a pesky fly in its journey through a house.  Little Bitty Mousie is another alphabetical romp through a household as Mousie explores the house... For a complete list of Jim's book go to this page.

Winner of the 2015 Sydney Taylor Award

Barbara McClintock and Jim Aylesworth have collaborated on several folk stories including their latest title My Grandfather's Coat. In 2015 Jim and Donna Aylesworth went to Silver Springs MD where they were guests at the American Jewish Libraries Conference. During that conference McClintock and Aylesworth were presented with the Sydney Taylor Award in the Younger Readers books.

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About Jim's Teaching and Writing

Jim Aylesworth was born in Jacksonville, Florida but as an infant moved from the state. He lived in many places during his childhood: Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas... but by the time Aylesworth was 15 his family had settled in Hinsdale, Illinois and that is where he graduated from high school in 1961.

In 1965, he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a B.A. in English. He returned to Hinsdale and began a career as a stockbroker. By 1970, however, Aylesworth was thinking about what he really wanted to do. After a series of assignments as a substitute teacher, Aylesworth ended up in a primary classroom. He began teaching first grade students in Oak Park, Illinois in 1971 and entered Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois, to earn a graduate degree in elementary education -- a goal he reached in 1978.

During the years Aylesworth taught he was given several awards. In 1975 the Illinois State Board of Education named him among "Those Who Excel," and in 1984 he was named a "Governor's Master Teacher." The following year he was named Corcordia University's "Alumnus of the Year." In 1998 Hinsdale High School named him to their Hall of Fame.

But it was his work with children that brought him the most reward. It was Aylesworth's experiences as a teacher that eventually led him to writing children's books. His students' enjoyment of his stories encouraged him to persist in pursuing his dream of being a children's book writer. It was in the classroom that he realized the power of books. He says, "I have seen a room full of children sit still and pay attention to a good book when it may be the first time they've been still at the same time all day."

During his twenty-five years of teaching Aylesworth read hundreds of books to his young students. Aylesworth found himself wanting to be a bigger part of this world of children's stories. And so he decided to write his own books, and has stuck with this goal ever since. During his quest to be published he collected many rejection letters. But his students encouraged him and told him to follow his own advice -- "Never give up!" Finally, his first work, Hush Up!, was published in 1980.

"Writing children's books," he says, "is my way of being the teacher beyond the walls of my classroom for children that I may never know."

All of Aylesworth's stories, whether filled with sounds of a country night or catchy rhymes, find their way back to his inspiration - the young children who read them.

Jim Today