Bio
Mrs. Pilegard’s lifelong desire to write and her sense of wonder led her to create stories for children. While teaching third and fourth graders she became interested in the ways that informal geometry (touching and thinking about rectangles, triangles and all manner of irregular polygons) strengthens students’ visual-learning skills. She soon fell in love with a medieval Chinese puzzle called “seven clever boards” or the tangram. When she added her own brand of storytelling to provide listening clues for her students, The Warlord’s Puzzle was born. In each of the seven books in the Warlord’s series Mrs. Pilegard offers a different mathematics concept for children to process with eyes, ears and fingers. Each has a story just begging to be read aloud, colorful, winsome pictures, and a craft.
Says Mrs. Pilegard of her life as a children’s author:
"I once heard that a writer’s childhood is her bank account. Mine was filled with the unspeakable riches of a mountain cattle ranch, an old, two-room miner’s cabin with neither electricity nor indoor plumbing, and two parents and a brother who were blessed with optimism and an enthusiasm for life. Each time my unlikely young hero solves a problem in his life and wins the respect of those around him, it’s not difficult to see where that theme might have originated."
For each of the Warlord’s books, Mrs. Pilegard spends hours in university and public libraries, scours bookstores and the Internet, quizzes Chinese-American friends, and corresponds with authorities on various aspects of Chinese life from Seattle to Beijing in order to bring authenticity to the Warlord’s series. In August 2002 and November 2007 she traveled to China to continue her research. She holds a B.A. in education and an M.A. in education with an elementary mathematics emphasis.
The team of Virginia Walton Pilegard and illustrator Nicolas Debon have earned praise for the highly successful Warlord’s series. The Warlord’s Puzzle debuted number two on BookSense ’76 list (a compilation of independent booksellers’ top picks across the country) in May 2000. The Warlord’s Beads was chosen for the November 2001 BookSense ’76. Both books are listed on the California State Board of Education’s recommended core-curriculum literature list for mathematics and all seven have been accepted by the Accelerated Reader program.
Mrs. Pilegard lives with her husband Richard in a log cabin they built (with the help of an old-fashioned log-raising by family and friends) in the foothills of central California. They are insufferably proud parents and grandparents and are presently in servitude to a horse named Pocket, three dogs and a cat.
For more information about booking Virginia Walton Pilegard for an event, please contact:
Caitlin Smith – School Sales Manager
Pelican Publishing Company
1-800-843-1724 ext. 319
csmith@pelicanpub.com
Pelican Publishing Company
1000 Burmaster St.
Gretna, LA 70053
1-800-843-1724
www.pelicanpub.com
To contact Mrs. Pilegard directly: vwpilegard@gmail.com