Biography
When is your birthday?
October 17th.
Where do you live now?
Toronto, Ontario.
When you were a kid, what was your favorite thing to do?
Reading -- especially books that were part of a series. If I really loved a book, I would read all of the books that the author ever wrote. I still remember how deeply disappointed I was when the librarian at my local library told me that I had read all of the Little House on the Prairie books and that there were no more in the series.
What did you most dislike doing when you were a child?
Math — mainly because I wasn't good at it and we usually don't like doing things that we don't do well. Mind you, now I enjoy strategy board games and word and number puzzles.
As a child, where did you dream of living?
I dreamed of living near a forest with a stream running through it. Oddly enough, our garden is surrounded by trees and there used to be a brook running between our yard and the next one. I've met a few people who grew up on our street and they remember catching tadpoles in the brook.
What did you think you were good at when you were a kid?
I was good at learning new languages and tried very hard to pronounce the words with the proper accent. I remember overhearing conversations of strangers on the street and trying to guess what language they were speaking.
When you were a kid in school, what did you look for in a friend?
I wanted a friend who had similar interests to mine, someone I could trust, and who was kind and considerate. A good friend is a person who listens well, is generous with their time, and is warm, and supportive. It also helps if they have a good sense of humour!
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be either a foreign correspondent or an interpreter at the United Nations.
What was your favorite book as a child?
I can't really name a single favorite book. I had favorite authors like E. B. White, Beverly Cleary, Robert McCloskey, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and John Peterson.
What's your greatest childhood memory?
I loved spending a part of summer in Muskoka where we would rent a cottage. I guess that's why I still have a fondness for the rocks, trees and lakes of that part of the country and for nature in general. As we drove up Highway 11, I used to look for the first outcropping of rock on the side of the highway, signaling the beginning of Muskoka, and I still do that today.
What is your favorite food?
I like most foods, but one of my favorites is wild blueberries from northern Ontario. We used to buy two 11 quart baskets from the same stand in Muskoka on Highway 169 since I was a kid. The stand was owned by five generations.
What is your favorite pastime now?
I love gardening. I'm always incredulous at the variety of leaves and flowers. I love watching the different kinds of birds in our birdbath and the butterflies with incredible patterns, I love breathing in that moist, fresh air in the early morning and picking the vegetables I planted in the spring. Reading is a close second. When I read in the garden, life is perfect!
When did you start writing?
For the purposes of publication, I started when I was 40.
Have you had any other jobs?
Absolutely! I worked in a variety of schools in the Peel Board of Education as an elementary school teacher. I taught regular classes, gifted children and children with learning disabilities from kindergarten to grade 6.
Do you have any special secrets or insights about one of your books or characters?
I have a story about some information that I got for my Sound Science book. When I needed some information about train whistles, I phoned a train engineer. Even though I introduced myself and explained what I was doing, he wouldn't believe me. In fact, he thought I was pulling his leg and became quite angry. When I finally convinced him that I was telling the truth, he faxed me pages and pages of info about train whistles, and he told me about his experiences in northern Ontario with the moose and how they thought the train whistle was a moose love call. The moose would run onto the tracks and get killed. That's why the railroad company changed the pitch of the whistle. This serendipitous information made a terrific sidebar in my book and a good story to tell during workshops.
If you could live anywhere, where would you go?
I like living where I do now. Toronto is a great city with lots of parks and ravines and many interesting neighborhoods, which I am continually discovering.
If you had to have a motto, what would it be?
We were born to make the world a better place.