Retired teacher Rosemary Nelson of Parksville was born on December 28, 1946 in the small town of Dinsmore, Saskatchewan, where her parents owned and operated a grain farm. She did not have access to many books, but she developed an early love of reading. With the help of a subscription to a children's book club and her family's own collection of classics, the magic of books became central to her childhood.

After finishing school, she moved to British Columbia, married, finished her teaching degree and raised a family. After twenty years of elementary teaching and working as a teacher librarian, she lives with her husband on Vancouver Island and they spend winters in New Zealand.

As a children's book author, she gives presentations to teachers and school students, and for many years taught writing courses for adults at the local college. She has written chiefly for Napoleon Publishing: Dragon in the Clouds, her first novel, was awarded a '1995 Choice Award' by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Now it its sixth printing, it is used in many parts of Canada as a grade 6 teaching novel, and has been included in an anthology which is part of a national reading program.

The Golden Grasshopper received a '1997 Choice Award' from the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Galena's Gift is a sequel to The Golden Grasshopper. Hubcaps and Puppies is a sequel to Dragon in the Clouds. It received a '2003 Choice Award.'

BOOKS:

Dragon in the Clouds (Napoleon, 1994)
The Golden Grasshopper. (Napoleon, 1996)
Galena's Gift (Napoleon, 1997)
Hubcaps and Puppies (Napoleon, 2002)

[BCBW 2008]