Raised in Ottawa, Marilee Peters of Vancouver has a Master's degree in English literature, having specialized in Victorian novels. She entered the Library Studies program at UBC and graduated as a librarian in 2006 with a MLIS. She soon became Communications Director at the BC Council for Families, later serving as its Acting Executive Director. In addition to working as Communications Officer for the Real Estate Council of BC, she is editor of the BC Organic Grower. As someone who thrives on research, she was pleased to be asked to write Patient Zero: Solving the Mysteries of Deadly Epidemics and discover, in particular, Dr. John Snow's determination to prove that cholera was spread through contaminated drinking water. She later met with epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Gardy and toured the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Marilee Peters has been living and working in Vancouver since the late 1990s. She has also worked for the Arts Club Theatre, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the BC Council for Families--and as a lifeguard, chambermaid and tree planter in northern B.C. Patient Zero, her first book, helped her to answer a number of nagging questions, including why, when as a child she forgot to cover her mouth while coughing, her mother always told her "don't be a Typhoid Mary!"; With two children of her own, she sees first-hand how thirsty for information kids can be -- and how wide-ranging in their interests. Her kids and their friends develop fascinations with the most arcane topics -- everything from the history of the Salem witch trials to the Beatles' discography. She hopes the stories of medical sleuthing she shares in Patient Zero inspire kids to learn more about the science of epidemiology.

10 Rivers That Shaped The World (Annick $24.95) is for children between the ages of 9 and 12. The book explores ten rivers that have shaped history. Includes: the Nile, Thames, Ganges, Mississippi and Yangtze.

BOOKS:

Patient Zero: Solving the Mysteries of Deadly Epidemics (Annick 2014) $24.95 hc $14.95 sc / hc 978-1-55451-671-1 / sc 978-1-55451-670-4

10 Rivers That Shaped The World (Annick 2015) $24.95 978-1-55451-739-8

Making it Right (Annick 2016) $21.95 978-1-554551-810-4

The Man Who Knew Everything: The Strange Life of Athanasius Kircher (Annick 2017) $14.95 / $19.95

[BCBW 2017]