Author and storyteller Alice McGill was interviewed for BookCast by Fairfax County Public Library Director Sam Clay. BookCast is sponsored by Virginia Commerce Bank through the Fairfax Library Foundation.

• Alice McGill is an award-winning author and storyteller. Her first book Molly Bannaky is based on one of her favorite stories. It was an ALA Notable Book in 2000 and won the 2000 Jane Addams Peace Award; International Reading Award; 2000 Skipping Stones Award; and 2001 Living the Dream Award.



• Other books include Sure As Sunrise, Miles Song, In the Hollow of Your Hand: Slave Lullabies, Here We Go Round and the soon-to-be published Way Up and Over Everything.



• McGill was born in a small farming community in North Carolina where in nearby Scotland Neck, “people still park in the middle of the street.” She attended a four-room school with her five brothers and two sisters.



• Storytelling and reading were favorite pastimes in her home. She remembers her father reading aloud from the News and Observer newspaper and Time magazine and listening to the kids read from books.



• She read her first “thick” book The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew in fourth grade. The Peppers remained her favorite characters for many years.



• She attended Elizabeth City State Teacher’s College and received a B.S. in elementary education. She taught school for almost 18 years before deciding to become a traveling storyteller.



• She has told stories in 40 states, Canada, the West Indies and South Africa.



• More about Alice McGill