Photo: Katherine Warde
Hi! I’m primarily a kids’ writer who loves to write poetry, nonfiction, and picture book fiction. I have 100+ books published in the educational market and several books for the trade (bookstore) market. They are BookSpeak! Poems About Books and Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, both with Clarion, and my rhyming nonfiction Can Be… picture books from Millbrook Press. I’m grateful that my books have received some lovely honors. You can check out my book table to see most of my books.
I write for kids because books were the air that I breathed when I was a kid. They were my world, my escape. This may sound sappy, but no matter what my topic or market, I love contributing to the safe world of books that I believe all kids need.
Poetry is my absolute favorite thing to write! I write snappy verse, nonfiction poems, funny middle-grade poems, and some serious poems, too. I have a blast trying out different poetic forms. My poems have appeared in books, magazines, websites, traveling art exhibits, and testing materials.
Nonfiction runs a close second. For nonfiction, I write mostly for elementary school kids. My books explore all sorts of topics — from migration to mealworms.
Sometimes, I write about things that I am curious about or passionate about. Other times, I write about certain topics or in certain forms because a publisher hires me for a specific project. Either way, I am grateful to spend my days wallowing in words. I can’t think of a better way to spend my life.
In addition to writing, I do lots of word-related things: speak at writing conferences, do school visits and Young Authors Conferences, mentor other children’s and YA writers through Mentors for Rent, do freelance copyediting and writing, and more. It’s a crazy quilt of a career!