Utah author receives award from children's organization

Children's author Sharlee Glenn just received an award from the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Developmental Disabilities for her book "Keeping Up With Roo," roughly based on her life with her developmentally disabled twin aunts.

Glenn, 46, now lives in Pleasant Grove but grew up on a farm in the Uinta Basin.

"I loved books," she said. "We lived out in the county. During the summer we didn't have access to the school library, but we had Bookmobiles."

One of her favorite books as a child was "Snip, Snapp, Snurr and the Red Shoes" by Swedish author Maj Lindaman, published in the 1930s.

"I actually found it on eBay not too long ago," said Glenn, who gave up teaching at Brigham Young University to pursue writing.

As an adult, she keeps books in the car, beside her bed and in her office. One such book is "The Price We Paid: The Complete Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers," by Andrew D. Olsen.

"Wherever I happen to be, that's the book I try to read," Glenn said.

And reading is part of the family. Glenn's husband "has kind of been the nighttime bedtime story reader," she said. "One time, I made a list of all the books he had read to my daughter, who's my oldest, and it just goes on and on and on," including such titles as "Bridge to Terabithia," "Chronicles of Narnia" and Newbery Medal winners. In the car, the family listens to books on tape.

"On their own, they may read '(The Adventures of) Captain Underpants,' and that's fine," she says.