Karen Beil was born on February 15th in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up in rural Connecticut, she spent much of her childhood outside, following streams through fields and woods and collecting shells on the Atlantic shore. In elementary school, she was one of a band of fifth graders who volunteered to give up recess to help in their school library. Her mother, the librarian, and her storytelling father were introduced by their sisters—both children’s book illustrators.

After graduating from Syracuse University with degrees in magazine journalism and English literature, Karen worked as a news reporter for the legendary wire service, the City News Bureau, in Chicago, Illinois, and later as a writer and editor of scientific publications. Her first book, Grandma According to Me, was inspired by her mother and was published in 1992. While the pull of picture books remains strong (and possibly genetic), Karen returned to reporting and interviewing with a nonfiction book about wildfires and firefighters, Fire in Their Eyes.

Her books have been recommended by the American Library Association (“Quick Picks” list for reluctant young adult readers), National Council of Teachers of English, and Voice of Youth Advocates, and chosen as favorites by students in various states.

Karen lives with her husband, a forester, in upstate New York near farm fields where coyotes yip-howl by night and the foothills of the Catskill Mountains appear by day.

Mooove Over!: A Book about Counting by Twos
illustrated by Paul Meisel
Holiday House, 2004
ages 4 to 8, ISBN 978-0-8234-1736-0

A teaching guide is available for this book.

The Countingtown Trolley is ready to roll. The passengers are climbing on—a pair of pigs, a duet of ducks, a couple of sheep—while the driver counts them two by two. There are only 20 seats, and safety is his rule. But when a rude cow in a bright purple dress cuts in line and pushes everyone off, the driver must help his passengers back on board and put an end to the chaos.

This wild story about manners and a badly-behaved cow getting her comeuppance just might be about math underneath all those raucous barnyard sounds. A page of related activities at the back of the book extends the fun.

Fire in Their Eyes:
Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them
photo-illustrated by the author and others
Harcourt, 1999
ages 8 and up, ISBN 978-0-15-201042-3

A teaching guide is available for this book.

Fire in Their Eyes is an adventure story. It’s about nature, science, and the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to fight forest fires. To create this close-up portrait of heroes, Karen Beil worked on a burn crew for two seasons, documented a smokejumper class, and interviewed dozens of firefighters and fire ecologists across the country.

Fire in Their Eyes takes the reader behind the scenes to an intense camp in Montana where new smokejumpers are being trained, to a command trailer in California where fire officers are planning strategies to attack a forest fire racing toward a city, to a boulder in New Mexico that saves the life of a native American firefighter. Karen also presents the positive, natural side of fire in a story about a fire ecologist in upstate New York who uses controlled burning to restore habitat crucial to the survival of an endangered butterfly species. Thrilling full-color photographs, exciting eye-witness accounts, and fascinating facts make this a book that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

A Cake All For Me
illustrated by Paul Meisel
Holiday House, 1998
ages 4 to 8, ISBN 978-0-8234-1368-3

When hungry Piggy bakes himself a cake, he has grand plans to eat it all, every morsel, every crumb, every lick, all by himself. It is, after all, a chocolate chip cake. Who could resist? Just as the oven timer buzzes and the cake is ready, Piggy’s friends show up at his kitchen door. Then the question is: Will he hog it all or share?

The story blends counting, measuring, and cooking skills with the feel of the old nonsense rhyme, “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.” Piggy’s exuberance shines through in Paul Meisel’s enthusiastic illustrations of the happy, hungry pig in his green apron.

After the story was written, Paul added an illustrated measurement chart, and Karen concocted recipes for Piggy’s Polka-Dot Cake and Choc-o-Lot Frosting, just the right size for a hungry class or one very hungry pig.

Grandma According to Me
illustrated by Ted Rand
Doubleday, 1992
ages 4 to 8, ISBN 978-0-440-40995-3

My grandma reads me books. Her voice is soft and low, and makes me feel good.
She says it’s deep, like dark molasses.
I say it’s sweet, like honey.

The best cookies in the world, a special drawer filled with treasures, and a lap that’s absolutely just right are only a few of the things that make visits with this grandma so much fun. No wonder this granddaughter has her own opinions about her grandma—one whose lap isn’t plump at all but comfortable, and whose wrinkles are really story lines, each one promising a moment for them to share together.

This book is a loving tribute to the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren. And the warm illustrations by Reading Rainbow favorite Ted Rand make it a celebration.