Monday, May 16, 2011

Byrd Baylor

Byrd Baylor is 87 years old. She has written 30 or so books, four of which have received Caldecott Honor Awards. Her books are her love letter to the desert she loves. She is currently working on a book of personal essays about her unusual life.


Her name, Byrd, is her mother's maiden name. The family descended from General Byrd. She also descends from the founder of Baylor University.


She lives in a solar-powered adobe house 50 miles south of Tucson, Arizon. She has a generator for the little electricity she uses and she types on a manual typewriter. She gets her news from a portable radio and her friends drop off newspapers at a cafe six miles away.
Read articles about her in the Arizona Daily Star [ here ] and the Arizona Public Media [ here ].

Listen to an interview with Byrd Baylor [ here ]. She reads an essay, "Good Women Who Love Bad Trucks."

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site has some ideas on how to use her books [ here ]. 

Jeeves, Girl Wonder and her son have done a fabulous job making recordings of some of her books.
Check it out!


I'm In Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Jeeves [ here ].

Before You Came This Way by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Jeeves [ here ].

If You Are a Hunter of Fossils by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Girl Wonder's son [ here ].

The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Girl Wonder [ here ].

The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Girl Wonder [ here ].

Your Own Best Secret Place by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Girl Wonder and her son [ here ].

The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor
Listen to the recording by Jeeves [ here ].
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3 comments:

  1. wangfleurJuly 9, 2011 at 3:54 PM

    hi, I wrote a letter to Baylor saying that I would like to publish her books in China. I don't know the exact address of her, just addressing Byrd Baylor, arivaca arizona.
    If you know how to contact her let me know please! I tried for two years to contact her publisher yet got no result.

    my email: wangfleur@gmail.com

    Many thanks!


    Flora in China

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 5:53 PM

    Does anyone know how I can reach Byrd? We would like to see if she would come to speak at our school? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. SereiaNovember 8, 2013 at 9:32 PM

    I really wish we knew how to contact Byrd Baylor but we don't. Sorry.

    ReplyDelete

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