It seems almost everyone talks about wanting to write a children’s book. Jim Aylesworth has actually done it. Many times. What’s more, the Hinsdale resident has had almost two dozen of his books published, with two more scheduled to hit the bookstores next year.
“Picture books,” he calls them. “Everybody likes picture books. They’re a unique art form, and today adults are buying them, not just to give to kids but to keep for themselves.”
Aylesworth learned to appreciate the value of children’s literature in 1971 when he began teaching 1st grade at Hatch School in Oak Park.
“I would read to the kids at the end of the school day, and, initially, I liked the books because the children liked them. But I soon began to love children’s books far more than I ever expected to; some days I didn’t know who liked them better, my pupils or me,” he said.
Still, it took awhile before he decided to try his hand at writing them.
“It seemed like a ridiculous thing, to be a writer. I was a family man with a wife and two young sons to support. I’ve never been one to jump into something, so the idea evolved slowly,” said Aylesworth, a large, bespectacled man who speaks with just a trace of the accent he acquired growing up in the South.
Sometime in the mid-’70s — he doesn’t remember exactly when — he set up a work space in the basement of his Hinsdale home and began turning out read-aloud picture books. He continued to teach at Hatch and was also studying for a master’s degree in education at Concordia University in River Forest.
He mailed his stories to publisher after publisher, and back they came, again and again.
“Rejections are always a part of any writer’s life, and I’m no exception,” he said. “Lots of things I’ve written are unpublished; they probably number in the hundreds.”
Aylesworth kept at it, however, and in 1980 was rewarded with his first hardcover book, “Hush Up!”, published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
“I remember the great joy I felt when I heard that `Hush Up!’ had been accepted,” he said. “And I remember how proud I was to read it to my class when it was ready. When one of my pupils asked, `Why don’t you write another one?’ I wasn’t sure I could, but I decided to try.”
Eight years later, with seven published books to his credit, he dedicated the eighth, “One Crow: A Counting Rhyme,” “To All My Darlings at Hatch School, Oak Park, Illinois, with Love!”
Soon after “Hush Up!” was published, invitations to speak at schools and bookstores began pouring in.
“Jim is a wonderful speaker; I thoroughly enjoy him,” said Ginny Tenzis, who was learning center director of an elementary public school in Woodridge when she first became acquainted with his work. Today she manages the extensive children’s book department at Anderson’s Bookshops’ Elmhurst location.
“He’s very animated when he reads, so he’s able to draw his audience into the action,” said Tenzis, a member of the Children’s Reading Round Table, a group of people interested in writing, illustrating and publishing. “His books are clever and tender, humorous and uncomplicated; they are books that are meant to be shared.”
Aylesworth has also been fortunate with his illustrators whose work helped draw readers to his books, according to Tenzis, who met him a half-dozen years ago when she enrolled in one of his college-level children’s literature courses. “Ted Rand (illustrated) `Country Crossing,’ and Eileen Cristelow, a wonderful artist, did `Two Terrible Frights’ and `The Completed Hickory Dickory Doc,’ which is one of my favorites,” she said.
Kay Williams, who teaches a multi-age class of 1st and 2nd graders at Hoover School in Schaumburg, uses the latter read-aloud book to introduce her students to the study of time.
“I own every one of Jim’s books, and I love to use them in my classes, not only for reading practice and enjoyment but as teaching tools,” said Williams, who has taken a course in children’s literature at Concordia and a course on the art of writing for children at the University of Chicago, both taught by Aylesworth.
“`My Sister’s Rusty Bike’ is useful in teaching geography,” Williams said, “and I’ve found `McGraw’s Emporium’ helpful as an introduction to the use of commas. Jim’s school appearances give children an understanding that books are written by real people. My former students frequently attend his book signings because they love to hear him read. Actually, he doesn’t read the stories, he performs them, bringing them to life for his listeners.”
Williams, whose personal favorite is “Mother Halverson’s New Cat,” said, “If you’ve not heard Jim imitate the hog call he wrote about in `Hanna’s Hog,’ you’ve missed a great experience.”
A 1961 graduate of Hinsdale High School and a 1965 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Aylesworth said he’s always working on something, putting the finishing touches on something else. “I always have things in the mail, and I always have my fingers crossed,” he said, “but somehow, I have the disconcerting feeling I might run out of ideas. I’m really not sure where ideas come from. Once I sat down in a living room easy chair and got an idea for a book, and it worked. So I often tried sitting in that chair, hoping lightning would strike again. Never did, though.
“It’s kinda fun looking for ideas. Basically, characters are easy and settings are everywhere. It’s the what-happens part that’s tough.”
Authors of children’s books are not paid handsomely, but the satisfaction of being published is high.
“One wants to use one’s abilities to help create a better world, which is why I became a teacher,” Aylesworth said. “As far as writing books is concerned, it’s no get-rich business, but there’s always a chance, probably a far-out chance, that you’d write the classic children’s book, a perennial best seller like The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter or Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
“Money is always in a fella’s mind, but it can’t be on your mind in the beginning because you’d starve to death. I made hardly any money in the beginning.”
But just as success breeds success in other arenas, when authors gain recognition, as Aylesworth has, they command better pay. And if picture books are reprinted in paperback, or as board books, those produced on heavy “childproof” stock, the writer receives additional money.
Although Aylesworth uses an agent to negotiate his contracts, he submits his work to publishers himself, and never worries they might steal his words.
“I deal with the finest publishers. There would never be that kind of problem,” he said.
With his growing reputation, his speaking fees have grown too. “The money’s getting better,” he said. “I’m on a number of speakers’ lists, but it’s mostly been word of mouth that brings in the contracts. I introduce myself as an author, but my skills as a teacher come in handy. I try to inspire kids to read more so they’ll develop a love of reading.”
His school programs range in length from 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the age and attention span of the youngsters he’s addressing. He usually reads parts from his own books and sometimes takes questions.
Last year, Aylesworth retired from Oak Park School District 97, after 25 years of teaching 1st grade. The Illinois State Board of Education honored him with its Those Who Excel award in 1975; he was named Governor’s Master Teacher in 1984 and Alumnus of the Year by Concordia University in 1985.
“Old Black Fly,” published by Holt in 1992, brought him the Reading Magic Award from Parenting Magazine, the Notable Book for Children award from the American Library Association, the Minnesota (Younger Children) Book Award from the Minnesota Center for the Book and the Children’s Choice Award from the International Reading Association and Children’s Book Council.
“My Son John,” published by Holt in 1994, was named a Notable Children’s Book by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Aylesworth has not really retired, though. He is continuing to teach at the University of Chicago and the College of DuPage, to write and to fill speaking engagements, criss-crossing the country with his treasured children’s picture books stashed in a beat-up old valise.
“My biggest strength in working with kids was that I learned what they like,” Aylesworth said. “By the same token, if you’re going to write for kids, you should know what kids like. They like sound and music and poetry and rhythm and silliness. They like color and animals and fantasy. And they like gross stuff and messy things.
“As a teacher, I wanted to affect the future, to help children become successful students and learners and grow up happy. My writing is not dissimilar. As an author, I can affect the future of a child like a teacher does, but I have a wider audience. I’m able to touch more lives. Sometimes at night I think about children in Ocala and Kansas City and Toronto and even overseas, and I wonder whether someone is reading my picture books and how they like them.
“There’s lots of competition in the book business, which makes it even more remarkable that I’ve had the degree of success I’ve had. I’d like to keep on writing books. It’s fun being an author. I get to go to so many places, and people are so nice to me and all. I can’t be sure that I can do it, but like I told my kids at school to do, I’m going to try my very best.”
Today, his wife, Donna, a seasoned businesswoman, is the “Aylesworth” half of Akins & Aylesworth Ltd., a successful interior design studio in downtown Hinsdale. Their two sons — John, 30, an attorney, and Daniel, 28, a computer specialist — share lodgings in Chicago.
“When my sons were growing up, I think they always related to me more as just Dad, rather than as an author, although we did read together a lot,” Aylesworth said.
“Actually it was 1980 when my father’s first book was published and I was 10 or 11. Up to that point my brother and I really weren’t aware that he was writing children’s books,” said Dan.
“He would come home from work and go down to the basement, and sometimes it was hard to get him to come upstairs for dinner, probably because he was so absorbed in what he was doing. But what I do remember is that John and I were playing baseball when he called out to us and said he had some news. And it was good news. He told us one of his stories was going to be published,” Dan said.
“When we were young he would tell us stories about his childhood, and when our family went on camping trips he always had tales to tell, although he never tried to test his books on us. He’s still pretty quiet about his work until he knows something is going to be published, which these days seems like a yearly event. My brother and I look upon him as a very caring father,” he said.
