about the book
The night a baby gorilla was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, his mother did not hold him. She did not know what to do with a baby and neither did the other gorillas in the exhibit. Umande was mostly ignored.
Because of this, zookeepers took over. They held him, fed him, and kept him warm. They even crawled on their hands and knees to show Umande how to walk, coughed in his face to teach him discipline, and encouraged him with happy gorilla grumbles.
Umande was still missing something though. Zookeepers can’t replace a mother.
Thankfully, thousands of miles away at the Columbus Zoo, a mom was waiting for him.
about the author
While growing up in San Francisco, Maria Faulconer listened to her mother read Grimm’s fairy tales, which sparked her love of books. Maria even wrote poems and stories, but she never dreamed she could be a writer.
She attended Stanford University and the University of Colorado, obtaining a master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling. This education led her to teach high school English and counsel emotionally disturbed teens.
Arianna and the Strawberry Tea was Maria’s first published children’s book. Years later, A Mom for Umande was finally released, seven years after being sold.
Umande has a special place in Maria’s heart because it’s the true story of a baby gorilla searching for an adoptive mother. Maria is an adoptive mother herself, so she knew she needed to tell Umande’s story. Although she never met the baby gorilla while writing the book, she hopes to visit him on day at the Columbus Zoo.
Maria loves cooking, prowling coffee houses and bookstores, and roaming the world. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two children.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: A Book and a Latte
Author interview: Stacy S. Jensen
about the illustrator
Susan Kathleen Hartung’s childhood consisted of two older brothers, a beagle, a station wagon, and a ranch house in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “It was completely normal.”
Her artistic development started early: “‘I started drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon. I drew all the time, on anything. I got into a fair amount of trouble too. Pretty soon my parents figured it out and focused my attention on appropriate surfaces… like paper.’”
After graduating from high school, Susan attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Once there, she realized she wanted to go into children’s book illustration because it offers more room for input and creative control.
After eight years of working numerous part-time jobs in advertising, design, and photography, Susan finally got her foot in the door of children’s book illustration, but when she did, she ended up flinging the door open—not just slowly nudging it open. The first book she illustrated, Dear Juno, won the Ezra Jack Keats Award. She’s been busy illustrating books ever since.
After living in Brooklyn, New York, for fourteen years, Susan moved back to Michigan. By chance, she ended up in… Brooklyn, Michigan.
When not working in her studio, Susan is probably visiting friends and family in the area or renovating her 140-year-old farmhouse. She lives with her husband Al (a very tall Texan), dog Angus, and two cats, Connor and Hadji.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator interview: Wild Rose Reader
Also by Susan Kathleen Hartung:
Tallulah : Mermaid of the Great Lakes. Sleeping Bear Press. 2015.
Three Scoops and a Fig. Peachtree. 2010.
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