The Big Book about Being Big

About the Author

Having published twenty books, Coleen Murtagh Paratore shares what she has learned about writing for young people with great enthusiasm. Every time she speaks about writing, she holds up her library card and says, “I am a writer because I was a reader.” She credits her mother with taking her on the bus to the city library each Saturday to collect her “treasures” of the week.

Coleen now lives in Troy, NY, and is the proud mother of three BIG sons, Christopher, Connor, and Dylan. In addition to writing, she gives presentations at state and national conferences and book festivals, as well as visiting schools across the country, where she enjoys meeting librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Learn more about Coleen at www.coleenparatore.com.

Having left her unversity with an illustration degree, and after fifteen years as a designer and studio manager in the UK greeting card industry, Clare, a mum to Ella (age ten) and Hope (seven), took the plunge and decided to follow her life-long dream to illustrate children's books. So having quit her job, Clare ousted her hubby from his beloved study, set deep in the English countryside, and promptly converted it to a rather messy studio filled with children's picture books, cats, cushions, pencils, and paint. Clare set to work carving out her new career as a children's book illustrator! Some two short years later, Clare is joyfully collaging the contents of her imagination into the pages of children's books, and loving every moment of it.