About Me

Hi! I’m Shelley, a multi-published children’s book author. I’ve devoted my adult life to working with children and writing books for them. (I also wrote a book of poetic prose for new mothers.)

Years ago, I worked as a children’s nonfiction book editor and wrote nonfiction kids’ books for educational presses. My Humane Societies: A Voice for the Animals was an International Literacy Association’s Children’s Choices book.

During that time, I also sold a contemporary middle grade novel to Delacorte/Random House.

Writing nonfiction titles for Capstone Publishers led to twelve fictional easy readers in their Max & Zoe series. That led to a contemporary chapter book series, about kids who work in a dog hotel. Based on its success, Capstone asked for another chapter book series set in a cat hotel.

Twelve in all, the ADVENTURES AT HOUND HOTEL and ADVENTURES TABBY TOWERS chapter books were published in both the US and UK, and some were translated to Spanish and Romanian.

I also sold a story to Highlights for Children, “I Don’t Like Tomatoes,” which became an audiobook.

I attended Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, USA, where I majored in English Literature and graduated magna cum laude. I also earned a kindergarten-sixth grade teaching certificate at Augsburg.

For five years, I worked at a children’s bookstore, the Red Balloon Bookshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My duties there included bookseller and backlist book buyer.

For four years, I worked as a teachers’ aide in an elementary school. I assisted in the preschool and after-school program, and in numerous classrooms (second through fifth grade). My duties included leading small-group literacy lessons (grades 3-6). And I planned “book clubs” for the grade six literacy program, based on middle grade novels, then led daily, small-group discussions about them.

I’ve also taught classes at week-long, young-author conferences (grades 3-8).

In my late teens and early twenties, I was a nanny in London, England, and in New York City.

I moved often as a child, between the American states of Minnesota, Oregon, and Texas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. I was always the new girl, adjusting to different schools, peers, and neighborhoods. Books were a constant, comforting presence in my life.

My favorites were Pippi Longstocking, Charlotte’s Web, Harriet the Spy, and A Wrinkle in Time. I read every Nancy Drew mystery in the library.

I live in Minnesota with my husband, a retired high school social studies teacher. We have two grown sons.

Please visit my other pages, here on my website, to read more about my books, see letters I’ve received from readers, read my answers to questions that kids ask, and hear how I created my two chapter book series: HOUND HOTEL and TABBY TOWERS. Happy reading!