Mike Thaler Biography

Mike Thaler was born October 8, 1963 in Los Angeles, California. As a child, Mike was always very creative, he enjoyed modeling clay, drawing pictures and writing. He drew cartoons for the school annual and for his school paper at the University of California. He drove from California to New York to begin his career drawing cartoons for adults. Until one day he was contacted by his first editor Ursula Nordstrom after she saw one of his cartoons, she reached out to him to write a children's book. Mike successfully wrote his first book Magic Boy and it was published in 1961. He has since published over 250 books and is known as "America's Riddle King." Mike Thaler believes that story writing and riddles are the most useful tools in stimulating …show more content…
Users can even join the Black Lagoon Fan Club and receive a monthly Newsletter. After reading many of Mike Thaler's books, I found his website extremely disappointing. Simply because it lacks the creativity and imagination one has come to expect from him. However, after reading the Q&A on his website I learned that Mike is not a computer guy, he stated that he doesn't even know how to turn one on. He uses a pen, paper and imagination to get his ideas down and his wife Patty types for him. Mike likes to poke fun at all things kids worry about. He writes books about their worries to give them something to laugh about and by the end ease their fears. He uses a lot of word play, which creates most of the comedy within the text. For example, the idea for the title The Teacher from the Black Lagoon came from the title of the movie The Creature from the Black Lagoon. One day he realized teacher and creature rhymed and his book title was born. The tone and mood of his books is set from the start. Children enjoy books that they can relate to and his books provide just what they