Charlotte Agell

Charlotte Agell (born September 7, 1959) is a Swedish-born American author for young adults and children who currently lives in Maine.

Agell was born in Norsjö, Sweden, on September 7, 1959.

She is the daughter of businessman Christer L. Agell and artist; Margareta "Meta" McDonald.

Her great-grandfather, Hugo K. Segerborg, was the director of Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.

When asked about her childhood, Agell said, "somebody always handed me art supplies."

Her family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada; when she was two years old; where her brother Karl and sister Anna were born.

She attended Carlyle Elementary school where she learned English Language and listened to tales of Maine from Anglo-Canadian and Franco-Canadian friends.

She became enamored with Maine hence wrote a story set in Halibut, Maine; a fictional town in which she imagined herself as her protagonist, a ruddy-cheeked boy catching fish for dinner.

At the age of eleven, Agell's family moved from Canada back to Sweden (where they stayed briefly) and then to Hong Kong.

She graduated from a Lutheran mission school; Hong Kong International School; which she said was affiliated with an open-minded ecumenical church.

As a compromise with her mother, Agell applied to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, for early acceptance.

Instead of leaving school for a hitch-hiking stint with her boyfriend, she left Hong Kong and arrived in Maine in 1977.

She felt an immediate sense of home and has lived in the state ever since.

Recalling her childhood story, she wonders if she'd "written herself into the state."

Agell graduated from Bowdoin College in 1981, where she studied art and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education.

She later earned a teaching certificate from the University of Southern Maine, and a master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986.

Agell became a naturalized citizen of the United States in the 1990s.

Agell taught multilingual and multicultural education at Portland High School, Portland, ME and lived in several Maine towns before settling in Brunswick with her husband Peter J. Simmons, an arts administrator and master gardener.

She and Peter have two children, Anna and Jon.

Along with her work as a writer and illustrator, Agell is a teacher in the gifted and talented language arts program at Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth.

She says she's found her "tribe" with middle-schoolers.

She has also conducted workshops for youths and adults at various literary events throughout the state, including the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle.

She was also a member of Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

Dancing Feet (1994) is a rhyming story about the function of feet, hands, noses, legs and mouths.

The text is matched with watercolor illustrations that depict similarities and differences of people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and reflecting Agell's interest in multicultural education.

One reviewer found the drawings range from the "suggestively simple to excessively cartoonish."

However, other reviewers found the book enjoyable to read and a good choice for story hour.

Recommended for ages 3–7.

To the Island (1999) and Up the Mountain (2000) both features four friends: Dragon, Cat, Chicken and Rabbit who spend time together exploring their surroundings.

In To the Island, recommended for ages 3–5, the four friends venture to a nearby island for a picnic.

The story is described by Donna Gold of the Portland Press Herald as "neither silly nor solemn," with a text suitable for beginning readers and illustrations that, through use of vibrant colors, depict a happy time spent with friends.

In Agell's Up the Mountain, the four set off on a rainy day to climb a mountain.

The adventure is, reportedly, "too mild for children at the upper end of the target audience" (the four just basically walk to the top of the mountain and back), but reviewers agree the simple rhymes and the illustrations, conveyed in ink, watercolor and pastels, are suitable for young listeners.

Recommended ages 2–5.

Welcome Home or Someplace Like It (2003), Agell's debut novel, is a semi-autobiographical story told through the experiences of 13-year-old Aggie Wing.

Aggie and her brother, Thorne, are faced with learning to cope with life in Ludwig, Maine after being dropped off there by their mother, a romance writer, who leaves to do research in Niagara Falls.

The two children have moved a lot and must now learn to live with their 91-year-old grandfather.

Her second novel, Shift, was featured on the front cover of the Brunswick Times Record in October 2008.

In addition to working on novels and children's books, Charlotte Agell also teaches in Maine.

Agell also wrote and illustrated picture books for young children.