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The Springvale Library is delighted to host the Bruce McMillan Corner in the Children's Room of the library.  Katahdin Award winning author and illustrator Bruce McMillan has been a library supporter for more than thirty years.  Springvale Library became his library, and he became our author from the time when he was a struggling writer until today, when he is an internationally known author of more than forty-five highly honored children's books.  Bruce has generously donated nine of his original hand tinted photographs from Grandfather's Trolley to hang on permanent display in the Children's Room. 

 

Come in and visit, borrow one of Bruce's fine books and enjoy the trolley pictures.

 

Born in Massachusetts, Bruce McMillan was raised in Bangor and Kennebunk, Maine.  He graduated from the University of Maine and worked as  producer-director in public broadcasting and then as a caretaker of McGee Island off Port Clyde Maine.  While island-living, he polished his writing skills.  He has since combined writing and photography to create more than forty five children's books including Nights of the Pufflings, The Baby Zoo, Fire Engine Shapes, Wild Flamingos, My Horse of the North, and Salmon Summer. 

 

McMillan speaks at conferences and to school children throughout North America, and teaches a children's book class at the University of New Hampshire.  He has written more children's books set in Iceland than any other U.S. author and, when he isn't in Iceland working on another book, he lives in a home he built himself in Shapleigh, Maine.

Bruce McMillan credits his father with his early interest in photography.  His father gave him his first camera at the age of five and his first professional camera at the age of nine.  McMillan learned photography by "doing."  Even as a child, McMillan tried taking creative photos - "one of a burning candle from above!"  In high school, he took photos for his school newspaper and yearbook.  McMillan claims he takes many "bad" pictures, but the key to his success is shooting thousands of photos, if necessary, in order to get the few "perfect photographs" that he uses to illustrate his books. 

 

McMillan also takes great pride in designing his own books which often include playful borders like the colorful jelly beans in Jelly Beans For Sal.  "Parts of me are in all my books," claims McMillan. 

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Some of his books reflect his training in biology, some of his love of the sea, and all derive from his "Maine roots."  In 2007, he was awarded the Katahdin Award in recognition of the lifetime achievement of an outstanding body of work of children's literature in Maine by one author or illustrator.

A Celebration of Maine's Children's Books
1998 by Lynn Plourde and Paul Knowle