Leslie Patricelli Books In Order

Publication Order of The Rizzlerunk Club Books

Publication Order of Leslie Patricelli Board Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Leslie Patricelli is a Children’s Books, Humor and Comedy, and Comics author. She was inspired to become an illustrator and graphic storyteller by her grandmother who was a pastel artist. As a child, she loved writing stories and drawing cartoons and by the time she was in the seventh grade, she was considering a career as an artist.

In her high school years, she took a multiple choice career test which recommended that she was best suited to taking forestry. Patricelli was so flabbergasted, that she went back and changed her answers so that it would recommend graphic design, that was the closest thing to cartoonist or children’s book writer on the list.

She has now made a career for herself as an illustrator and children’s book author, two careers that have earned her legions of fans across the world.
She gets much of her inspiration from watching children and in fact one of her works is inspired by Beck, her son who was then only a year old. She has said that everything from how children rejected certain foods, toddler passion and extreme focus, intense emotions and curiosity is usually fertile fodder for her books.

One of Leslie Patricelli’s most popular works over the years has been “The Rizzlerunk Club.” These are works full of verve as they delve into the follies, friendships and fun that characterize school life in the fourth grade.

The author has said that writing the debut novel of the series “The Rizzlerunk Club” had been something she wanted to do for a very long time. As a child she loved her school and the many friends she had in the fourth grade but despite her protests, her family moved to Washington.
It was not a very good look on the very first day as she was sick and threw up at recess in front of the whole school. Even though it was a shaky beginning, it was not long before she had made new friends and the fourth grade would become one of her most memorable and favorite years of school.
Watching her own children go through the fourth grade she had fond memories of her time that she combined with theirs to write her novels.
Over the years, she has won several awards including the Horn Book Award by the Boston Globe for her novel “Higher! Higher!” This was inspired by her daughter Tia and her friends who always said higher higher while playing at the swing.

The “Patterson Puppies” series of novels are inspired by Leslie Patricelli’s own experiences as a child even though many of personalities are based on her own children.

As a four year old, she had convinced her friend that they could create an ocean in her bedroom and proceeded to dump several buckets of water on her bedroom floor. This is similar to what happens in the events of “The Rainy Day” and “The Patterson Puppies.”

Patricelli is yet to forget the feeling of getting caught by her parents and being removed from their fantasy world after which they were made to realize they had done something very wrong. At that age, she was very certain that they could make their own ocean to do with as they pleased.

She fondly thinks back to that time when a child’s imagination could carry one into an imaginary world that to them felt very real. This is the feeling she tries to capture in her works. Patricelli has said that her favorite part of writing is the moment she gets a brilliant idea from a child.
She currently makes her home in Hailey, Idaho, a small mountain town where she lives with Jason her husband, her two daughters Tatum and Tia, Beck her son, a leopard gecko and a dog. Her ski instructor, music engineer and drummer husband often works as her on demand editor.

“Be Quiet, Mike” by Leslie Patricelli is the story of a little boy named Mike that showed that he was a drummer while still in his mother’s uterus. He can turn anything he finds from his sister’s dolls to a garbage can into a percussive instrument.

As such, his mother is always admonishing the boy to be quiet which ironically is a refrain that needs to be shouted. The child tries his best to be a good son but he cannot help but play anything he can find.

The gentle lesson in the novel is that in the right context there is nothing wrong with exercising a talent. As such, a child with a talent for drumming needs to use a drum kit but if they cannot have the kit, then they should be let to find anything that will suffice as a matter of necessity.
While Patricelli has never been known for her rhymes, instead being very literal, she illustrates her story with bright acrylic illustrations that are the definition of bouncy and upbeat. In doing so, she gives the well meaning and irrepressible Mike unexpected poignancy and depth.

Leslie Patricelli’s “Best Buds Under Frogs” is an uproarious novel featuring the springy haired toddler Lily. Lily is a supershy fifth grade pupil who has just had a disastrous day in school where she just reported. All she wants is to blend in and be part of everything just like the spinach her mother adds to the smoothies she makes.

Luckily she is taken in by a passionate and uninhibited pupil named Darby, who is a collector of frogs and believer in ghosts. But then Jill, who was Darby’s former best friend, comes back from London and wants to resume their friendship.

She now has a British accent and an English school uniform and is a master of coming up with pranks which she manipulates Darby and Lily into carrying out.
Patricelli has some very interesting humor and her illustrations just add to the fun of the self effacing narration by Lily. This is a rollicking exploration of the rewards and challenges of friendship in the fourth grade.

“Boo!” by Leslie Patricelli is the novel in which the diaper wearing toddler from many of her popular novels gets a first taste of Halloween and experiences everything from costume choosing and pumpkin carving.

One of the work’s funniest moments is when she dismisses the pumpkins as too big or too small and finally settles for one she believes is just the right size. The chosen pumpkin happens to be the exact shape and size of the Baby’s head right to the squiggly stem that has a cunning resemblance to uits single curly hair.

This is an honest exploration of the excitements and frights that first time Halloweeners usually have to experience.