Whether you’re a prospective parent checking out the Hogarth site or a picture book lover checking out my author site, I’m glad you’re here. To the picture book lovers not only am I an author, I’m a teacher. To the prospective Hogarth parents not only am I a teacher, I’m an author. Go me!
Here are the books I’ve written or contributed to so far.
These are two of my favorites.
Women of the Pine Tree State: 25 Maine Women You Should Know is part of Apprentice Shop Books’ America’s Notable Women Series. I’m thrilled this series won the 2015 Moonbeam Silver Medal for Best Nonfiction Book Series. I contributed profiles to 7 books in the series, including one for my aunt, Rebecca Nurse, who was sadly executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
A Bit About Me
I was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, but my family moved to Epping, New Hampshire when I started high school. After graduating college, two of my sisters and I opened Hogarth Country Day School where I found my people—preschoolers. They are smart, endlessly funny, honest and a great source of inspiration for my writing. Teaching at Hogarth provides a perfect proving ground for my nonfiction books, picture books, and original curriculum—including many songs.
I’m proud to be a member of The Write Sisters, a group of multi-published children’s authors. Our origins as a critique group evolved into deep friendships. Since our early days, Muriel Dubois moved across the country, Janet Buell relocated to Ireland, and both Diane Mayr and Barbara Turner have gone out of print. (They’d love that, trust me). Sally Wilkins, Kathy Deady, and I continue to meet monthly for lunch, where we share critiques and lots of laughs.
A Few Fast Facts
- I’m the second oldest of 6 kids with an age gap of 18 years between the oldest and youngest.
- I wrote my first piece for children when I was 16. It was a poem for my baby brother.
- I have 32 first cousins and they’re all on my mother’s side.
- I had a Guernsey dairy cow named Clurichaun who I milked by hand twice a day every day during high school. Mechanical milking machines were in widespread use by 1900. Not in our barn.
- My experiences milking and caring for Clurichaun inspired me to write my picture book Farmer Ben years later.
- As a kid, I adored horses. My favorite horse book was Spurs for Suzanna by Betty Cavanna. Until I wrote my picture book A Friend for Vinnie.
- I had my own horse, Moonshine, who I would ride around the corral at The Farm for hours. We went nowhere fast and I loved every minute of the journey.
- “The Farm” is what we called our vacation home in Maine. There was a huge barn for the animals and an old chicken coop with the poop swept out for the humans. My father added bunk beds, electricity, and a pot-bellied stove. We were living large.
- I’ll take any opportunity to travel to our National Parks. It was Teddy Roosevelt’s greatest presidential legacy—apart from the Bear, of course. And his Rat Terrier Skip.
- I, too, had a Rat Terrier but her name was Mary. She was feisty. And the inspiration for my picture book Mary Murphy and the Wild Wind.
- I had a 17-pound orange cat named Pearl who was a keyboard hog. I think she secretly wanted to be a writer.
- I’ve helped judge several rounds of the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest, and prior to that, I served as a judge for multiple Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contests, both at New Hampshire Public Television.
- I love writing with my preschoolers. They create nonfiction reports for the Hogarth blog detailing the goings-on in our classroom. They also write “peeps” for the Peep page on our website. Peeps are similar to the old Twitter tweets and can be fiction or nonfiction. They usually begin with the prompt, “Tell me something I don’t know.” Their responses give me a window into the minds of my primary picture book audience. Turns out there’s a lot I don’t know.