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Dick King-Smith was born on March 27, 1922 and raised in Gloucestershire, England. He grew up with animals of all kinds.
King-Smith was a farmer for twenty years and then became a school teacher. He was also a soldier during wartime, a traveling salesman, shoe factory worker, and television presenter. He later began writing children's books and has published well over 100 titles. He writes primarily about animals, especially pigs, and calls this particular genre "farmyard fantasy." He writes about humans as well.
His first book, The Fox Busters, was published in 1978 when King-Smith was in his mid-fifties. The story originally was inspired while King-Smith was a farmer and a fox had killed a lot of his chickens. About ten years after the event, he wrote down the story and it was then published.
Many of his books feature characters who are the "underdog." Among his well-loved books is Babe: The Gallant Pig (published in England as The Sheep-Pig). The book was made into a 1995 major motion picture and was nominated for an Academy Award. Babe, The Sheep-Pig also was given the Guardians Children Fiction Award in 1984. His book The Queen's Nose was adapted for television.
King-Smith was voted Children's Author of the Year at the 1992 British Book Awards and he is said to be Roald Dahl's successor in children's literature, for his popularity and quality.
The Puffin author page states that "Two qualities which mark out Dick King-Smith's writing are his delicious sense of humor and his belief in the ultimate triumph of the underdog. His love for animals is reflected in his work, for pigs, foxes, horses, dogs, and many more mammals are the main characters of his work, echoing the wonderful animal story of Charlotte's Web (E. B. White, 1952)."
EXTENSION IDEAS
* Connect to the Random House website page directly for reading group guides for Babe: The Gallant Pig and Ace: The Very Important Pig (http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/dick kingsmith/guides.html). The guides include questions, discussion topics, and an author biography.
* Connect to the Random House website page directly for teachers activities that connect to additional group discussions for Ace: The Very Important Pig, The Invisible Dog, and The Terrible Trins (http://www.randomhouse.com/ kids/dickkingsmith/teacher.html). Other activity ideas on the page include...