Borgo, Lacy Finn 1972-

Personal

Born 1972.

Addresses

Home—Montrose, CO.

Career

Teacher and author.

Writings

Big Mama's Baby, illustrated by Nancy Cote, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2007.

Sidelights

Growing up in Texas with a family who liked to tell stories, Lacy Finn Borgo discovered a love for books and writing at a young age. She recalled to Montrose Daily Press reporter Lisa Huynh that her first work of fiction was a murder mystery inspired by "too much '70s television." As an author and teacher, Borgo now enjoys inspiring younger children to write stories of their own.

Borgo indulges in a little silliness in her first published picture book, Big Mama's Baby. In a story brought to life in Nancy Cote's art, the "baby" of the title is a Black Angus bull that is fed from a bottle by an elderly woman known as Big Mama. While the bull is small, Baby sleeps nicely next to Big Mama's bed and spends its days in her Texas yard. As the bull grows bigger, however, the neighbors start to complain about its grazing as well as its manure. However, when Baby goes missing, the neighbors help a worried Big Mama search and they eventually find the bull happily grazing on a ranch with other cattle. A Kirkus Reviews critic predicted in a review of Big Mama's Baby that children will "recognize the joy and affection" in the owner-pet relationship. To this simple and universal theme, "Borgo adds a touch of narrative tension when the neighbors get into busy-body mode," the critic added.

The best way to create writers, according to Borgo, is to read and recite stories to children. "You can't write from nothing," she commented. "You fill up their tanks and when given the opportunity, children will write when they have a story to tell." The best thing about writing, Borgo tells her own students, is that anything can happen. "Sometimes, things that happen in books are silly," she said. "The great thing with books is that you can do what you want to do."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October, 2007, Deborah Stevenson, review of Big Mama's Baby, pp. 74-75.

School Library Journal, August, 2007, Ieva Bates, review of Big Mama's Baby, p. 77.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2007, review of Big Mama's Baby.

ONLINE

Montrose Daily Press Online (Montrose, CO), http://www.montrosepress.com/ (March 8, 2008), Lisa Huynh, "Letting Imagination Spill onto the Pages of a Book."