The young, imaginative Holabird loved animals, playing in her tree house, and dancing with her sisters. As a child, she was an avid reader who loved fairy tales and stories about heroic animals, and she frequently saw ballets like Cinderella and Swan Lake with her grandmother. The universal childhood themes in Angelina include friendship, jealousy, loyalty, & dedication. She struggles with her conscience but always ends up doing the right thing-which is very familiar to many young children. 'The impulsive character of Angelina came alive,' says Holabird, 'and seemed to pirouette off the page with enthusiasm and energy, while her plump and ebullient body expressed drama and attitude in every twitch of her tail.' Angelina is a very emotional character she is sensitive and often bursts into tears right before offering an apology. In fact, the Angelina books were originally about a girl, but then Craig drew a mouse, and Holabird loved it. Holabird wrote the first draft of Angelina Ballerina at the kitchen table with her daughters dancing around her. Her son Adam was her inspiration for the character Henry, and Angelina's character was inspired by her daughters' love for dressing up and dancing. In 1983, Holabird's first children's book, Angelina Ballerina, was published. In 1983, her third child, Adam, was born. Over the next few years, Craig illustrated several mini-books with mice, and Holabird provided some of the text. Later, Holabird met Helen Craig, a London photographer and artist whose illustrations have been inspired by her childhood in rural England. She has two daughters, Tara and Alexandra. The two married in 1974 and moved to London, where she continued to write and worked at a nursery school. Holabird then found herself in Italy as a freelance journalist where she met her husband, Michael Haggiag.

in literature from Bennington College in Vermont and then worked at Bennington College as a literary editor for a year after her graduation. Katharine Holabird (born January 23, 1948) is an American writer, best known as the author of the Angelina Ballerina series, illustrated by Helen Craig, and the Twinkle series, illustrated by Sharon Williams.īorn in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second of four daughters, Holabird grew up in an artistic home in Chicago, and her family spent many summers in Michigan.

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