Daddy Makes the Best Spaghetti

Anna Grossnickle was born on July 13, 1946, in Cincinnati, the eldest of seven children of Earl Stanton and Ruth Marie (Putnam) Grossnickle. The Grossnickles lived in Ohio for the first eleven years of Anna's life before moving to Los Angeles. In the midst of studies at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University at Northridge), Anna Grossnickle married Steve Carlton in 1965. Together they had two daughters: Bethany and Sarah. The Carltons divorced in 1973. Anna remarried in 1976, and she and husband Gary Hines have had one daughter together: Lassen.After graduating from Northridge, Anna G. Hines embarked on a career in teaching. For several years in the late 1960s, she taught preschool before receiving her Elementary Education Credential at Pacific Oaks College in 1974. She also received a Master's degree from the same institution in 1978. In that year she left formal education pursuits to turn to her original life's goal: illustrating and writing children's books, despite the discouragement she had received from college professors about likelihood of success in the children's book publishing industry. That advice was disproved with the sale of her first picture book, Taste the Raindrops, in 1983. Since that time Hines has written and illustrated over 40 different books, as well as encouraging both her husband and her daughter Sarah to begin writing books for children, many of which deal with child development and family issues. Not only has Hines been very productive, but she has earned the esteem of educators and children's book experts alike. Both Daddy Makes the Best Spaghetti and Grandma Gets Grumpy were given Children's Choice Awards by the International Reading Association and Children's Book Council. The National Science Teachers Association and the National Council for the Social Studies have each recognized the quality of Hines' books: Remember the Butterflies (1991) and Flying Firefighters (1993) respectively. The Pennsylvania Library Association's Carolyn W. Field Award went to 1995's What Joe Saw.Anna Hines and husband Gary currently live in Gualala, CA, where they both continue to write.Hines, Anna Grossnickle is the author of 'Daddy Makes the Best Spaghetti' with ISBN 9780899197944 and ISBN 0899197949.