I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and Madison, Wisconsin…but only partly. Sometime around the age of six or seven, I plunged into a book and never really came up for air. Oh, I went to school, walked my dog, loved my family…but I grew up as much in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain, Charlotte Bronte’s stormy moors and Jane Austen’s elegant drawing rooms, as I did in the Midwest suburbs.
I went off to college in Oberlin, Ohio, where I read as much medieval literature as they would let me. I also spent my junior year at Oxford, learned to read Old English, and was allowed to touch a twelfth century manuscript with my (GULP!) bare hands. After I graduated, I headed for New York and a job in publishing. I spent ten years there, finally becoming a senior editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books. A little while after my first book, The Dragon’s Son, was published, I made the painful decision to leave editing, which I loved, to concentrate full time on writing. And I left New York as well, to settle in Portland, Maine.
Books in order of publication:
The Dragon’s Son – 2001
Imagine a Night – 2003
Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag – 2003
Imagine a Day – 2005
Amazing Tigers! – 2005
Amazing Gorillas! – 2005
Extreme Stars – 2006
The Secret of the Rose – 2006
Amazing Dolphins! – 2006
Amazing Snakes! – 2006
Amazing Sharks! – 2006
Amazing Whales! – 2006
The Manny – 2007
Dragon’s Egg – 2007
Extreme Dinosaurs – 2007
Pirates, Ho! – 2008
Imagine a Place – 2008
What Lincoln Said – 2008
Obama: A Promise of Change – 2008
Where Do Polar Bears Live? – 2009
Tiger Pups – 2009
Three Cups of Tea – 2009
Mercy: The Last New England Vampire – 2011
Cinderella – 2012
Around the Neighborhood: A Counting Lullaby – 2012
Cub’s Big World – 2013
Ancient Animals: Terror Bird – 2013
Ancient Animals: Saber-toothed Cat – 2014
The Eureka Key – 2016
Quick, Little Monkey! – 2016
Deadly Flowers: A Ninja’s Tale – 2016
The Eagle’s Quill – 2017
Wombat Underground: A Wildfire Survival Story – 2022
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