For her, writing comes naturally

Did you groan when you had to write another essay on "what I did this summer"? Would you still groan if it turned out those essays were your key to success?

Ask well-known children's book author Jean Craighead George. "Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer," she says. She should know. She's written more than 100 books, and all of them were inspired by her and her family's outdoor adventures.

"My Side of the Mountain" was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, and "Julie of the Wolves" won the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1973. Those books have sold about 8 million copies each.

George is still working hard. Her latest book, "Fire Storm," is due in stores this month. "Now that I'm so-called 'retired,' " she says, "I'm busier than I ever was!" She laughs, and her blue eyes sparkle.

George writes in a room that looks out over a man-made waterfall, bird feeders, and flowers. The room is in her two-story wood-shingled home tucked into the woods in Chappaqua, N.Y. She's lived there for 46 years.

Her African gray parrot, Tocca Two, tried to join our interview, chattering away (in Eskimo, by the way) from the stairs. Her surroundings seem a perfect fit for the notable naturalist.

"Children are still in love with the wonders of nature," she says enthusiastically, "and I am, too. So I write them stories in hopes that they will want to protect all the beautiful creatures and places."

George's passion for nature stemmed from her father, who worked for the Forest Service studying insects and plants. When she was a girl, he would spend most weekends taking her and her twin brothers camping and canoeing near their home in Washington, D.C. They climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants for meals, or caught fish using hooks that they made from twigs.

"I was so surprised when I got to kindergarten to find out that everybody didn't have a vulture for a pet," she says.

Her brothers were among the first falconers in the United States. They raised wild falcons and trained them to hunt and to land on outstretched, gloved arms when called, even if they were flying hundreds of feet in the air.

George wrote "My Side of the Mountain" based on these experiences. "It took me only two weeks to write, because it was basically about my own life," she says. The book tells the story of Sam, who runs away from his home in New York City to live in the woods. There, he survives on wild plants and animals. He also trains a falcon.

George's pets inspired other books, too. She takes me to the kitchen and shows me the window where Crowbar, her family's mischievous pet crow, used to fly in and out. She points out the small pond in the entryway that once held tadpoles, crayfish, and even a 24-inch large-mouth bass. I'd read about them in "The Tarantula in My Purse" (1996). Still, I'm awed that so many extraordinary stories come from such ordinary surroundings.

George began writing in third grade. When she graduated from college, she became a reporter for The Washington Post. She was a member of the White House Press Corps - rare for a woman in those days. But when she had kids, she began writing children's books.

She brought owls, minks, bats, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals in all - into their home and backyard, so that she and her three children could learn more about them. (This was before it was illegal to keep wild animals as pets.)

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