Jane Scoggins Bauld

Jane Scoggins Bauld was born in Robert Lee, Texas but grew up mostly in Burnet, Texas. She played drum in the high school band from the third grade on until the eighth grade, when she switched to the bassoon. She was a majorette for the marching band and an A+ student scholastically.

After High School came marriage and family and at a certain point she established the Little Red School House in Burnet as its owner, director, and teacher. It was an immediate sensation. A little later she moved to Austin, where she was instrumental in establishing four quality pre-schools. Jane was always loved and highly acclaimed. At one point she was awarded as Teacher of the Year by the Austin Association for Young Children (see photo at right).

Nearing the end of her illustrious teaching career (at least formally), Jane began writing books for children. They, too, were an immediate success. First there was the pioneering book Rights for Children, for which she was invited to give a book-signing at the U.N. Very soon afterward there was Hector's Escapades: First Night Out. The popularity of Hector resulted in many book-signings and invitations to the first two meeting of the Texas Book Festival as a featured author. At one point, the University of Texas adopted Hector as a paradigm for study in their creative writing classes. The success of Hector also led to a series of books about this loveable bat.

Jane has consistently displayed an unusual ability to identify topics of historical and cultural importance, as can be seen from the above. Through her friendship with Isamu Taniguchi, the builder of the Oriental Garden in Austin, Jane came to know and write about the history of this important garden in The Mother Tree and The Journey of the Third Seed.

Jane's love of nature is seen in her books Texas in Bloom and Feathered Friends of Texas, which were intended for children but have come to be loved and used by many adults. More recent books include the Seasons of Treaty Oak, a suspenseful story about the historically famous tree in Austin and Stories Told Under the Green Umbrella. The later contains 23 original and highly creative stories for children of all ages.

Some of Jane's books reflect her exceptionally deep Christian faith, especially Firefly's Light and some of the stories in her story book. Her new books Sanctification and Standing On Holy Ground: Talking With God reflect her profound understanding of the Christian faith.

Jane also became quite active in holding conferences and seminars for teaching and training new writers. She gave numerous, highly popular one-week conferences at the Thompson

Conference Centre at the University of Texas at Austin and other venues. Three of her students have gone on to publish impactful books, and one entire class joined together to publish a book of stories. Jane's book-signings at schools and bookstores all over the state of Texas were always enthusiastically received.

Her ability to identify historically and culturally important topics has continued to be revealed in her new book The Seasons of Treaty Oak, and the compilation of her original stories contained in Stories Told Under the Green Umbrella reveals her breadth of interest and creativity.

Although she is retired from teaching and giving conferences,Jane continues to be active in the writing and publishing area. Her independent self-publishing group is called Under the Green Umbrella Publishing.