Aylesworth, Jim

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 Complete Hickory Dickory Dock, he offer numerous nonsensical rhymes and in Country Crossing, the sounds of the still countryside and a train passing fill the night.

Born in Jacksonville, Forida, Aylesworth lived in many places as a child before his family settled in Hinsdale, Illlinois.  He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a B.A. in English and returned to Hinsdale to begin a career as a stockbroker.  By 1970, however, Aylesworth was thinking about what he really wanted to do.  A series of assignments as a substitute teacher led him to a career in teaching.  He earned a graduate degree in elementary education from Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois in 1978.   In twenty-five years of teaching Aylesworth earned several awards and honors.  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.”  But it was his work with children which brought him the most reward and led him to pursue his dream of being a children’s book writer.  In 1996, Aylesworth decided to write and visit schools full time.  After raising a family in Hinsdale, Jim Aylesworth now resides in Chicago with his wife.  He travels extensively to speak to children in schools and at book events across the United States.