Eileen Spinelli writes books for children, but the families in her stories are not always picture book families. Her stories, about dads who work the night shift and moms who in the military, depict life as lived by real children.

 “I don’t consciously look for families that may have a different configuration,” Eileen said of her work.

“I almost exclusively write from my own life, either from my own childhood or families around me,” she said. “Those stories are either in me already or come to me through my daily life.”

Eileen is the author of  “While You Are Away,” (Hyperion, 2004), a book about children whose parents are deployed. She said the book has generated more reader response than any of her other works. That is saying something for the prolific author of forty-odd children’s books.

“While You Are Away” arose from her own childhood memories of an uncle who served in the Korean War.

“I just remember missing him, and family taking about him, and my grandmother getting letters and reading his letters,” she said. “I remember walking to school every morning, praying for my uncle that he would come home safe.”

Several of Eileen’s books are about difficult situations – an absent parent, moving or the birth of a new sibling – but all seem to end happily.

“I do that deliberately,” she said “I want to paint the world as I see it.”

Does she consider herself an idealist then, rather than a realist?

“I think of myself as an optimist. I know that life can be very difficult, but I’ve always been optimistic,” she said.

“Every book of mine ends on a hopeful note. I know there are times when bad things happen … I try to see the good in life, and I try to look at things through the eye of hope.”

That doesn’t mean she is blind to the harsher side of life.

“I, myself, can become overwhelmed just watching one half hour of the news and I usually think ‘Oh, what a horrible world,’” she said.

“But then I starting thinking about the people in my life and the good people everywhere and the good things that are happening ... life is good and there are good people. To me that’s also realistic.”

Another of Eileen’s books that military children can appreciate is “The House I Live In,” about moving.

Although Eileen has lived in the Philadelphia area most of her life, she has moved multiple times.

“I’m very familiar with moving and it’s traumatic. It’s difficult to say good-bye to the familiar. Any kind of change is hard.”

“I think that moving broadens you in the same way that travel broadens you,” she said. “When you successfully deal with a move, it helps you deal with other changes … and life is about change.”

“Military children get to see so many amazing places. I can’t think of anything that is a better learning experience than travel, and moving is travel, in a way.”

Although “While You Are Away” is out of print, a quick check online reveals that it is available at many base and post libraries. Eileen said she hoped the publisher would consider another printing, perhaps in paperback.

She doesn’t know how many books she has published. More than forty are listed on her Web site.

“I don’t think to count them up as they come out,” she said. “It’s all I can do to keep track of how many grandchildren we have.” She and her husband, children’s author Jerry Spinelli have 16.

Eileen's latest picture book, The Best Story (Dial, 2008). tells the story of a little girl writing a story for a contest. It could be somewhat autobiographical.

“I’ve been writing since I was a little girl, since I could write. I think I started when I was around 5,” Eileen said.

“I still write things that don’t get published. I’ve had my share of rejections, and if I followed that line that ‘I’ve had all these rejections maybe I shouldn’t keep going,’ then I wouldn’t have all these books out because I would have stopped a long time ago.”

In the story, the author said she hoped to convey that it is important to do what one enjoys, to find ones own voice and that winning isn’t everything. She purposely left the outcome of the contest open-ended to emphasize the message.

This wasn’t popular with all her readers.

“My granddaughter Leah called me up and said ‘What I want to know is did she win or not?’” laughed Eileen, who has 16 grandchildren.

“If we focus too much on winning, then we lose people. You don’t have to win a prize to write a story. The best is in you. It’s for your pleasure in life.”

“I write first because I have fun doing it, secondarily to get published," said the author.

"I’m happy to get published it’s how I earn my living, but if I couldn’t earn a living, I would do some other work, but I would still write.”