Winner of the 2022 Kraken Book Prize
Favorite Broadway musical: Les Misérables
Favorite bicycle: the purple stingray I received for my tenth birthday
Movies I watch every year: Sound of Music and White Christmas
Tallest mountain I’ve climbed: Mount Kilimanjaro
Go-to hiking trail: any section of the Pacific Crest Trail
I was an early reader, devouring Charlotte’s Web and Beverly Cleary’s books in first grade. By eighth grade I was reading Charles Dickens (Great Expectations is still a favorite). Beautiful works of literature, theater, music, and art inspire me. When I’m at my computer writing, I feel a kinship with the thousands of imaginative people who have been creating through the ages.
It’s a great privilege to be part of children’s lives in the hours they may spend reading my book. The possibility of helping children flourish is at the core of my life choices. After completing my B.A. in English and French Literature at Stanford University, I completed a teaching program at U.C. Berkeley. I have enjoyed the roles of elementary school teacher, full-time mother of three adventure-seeking sons, and volunteer and Board Member for World Vision U.S.
When not writing or reading, travel and the outdoors beckon. Our family has visited all seven continents and explored many national parks and local hiking trails. Traveling with World Vision has given me some of my most unusual experiences: visiting wonderful children in the slums of Bangladesh; going into the tunnels under Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to meet street children; and sitting around the evening fire with a tribal chief in rural Zambia.
My husband and I live in Lake Oswego, Oregon, but we also spend many weeks each year at Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon, the setting for my debut novel, Just Like Click, winner of the 2022 Kraken Book Prize for Middle Grade Fiction.
