Hi, I’m Laurie Elmquist the author behind the books. If you love beautiful picture books and well-told stories for young readers, you’ve come to the right spot. I’m excited to announce my debut picture book, Lila Makes a Monster, now available for order at your local bookstore, or from the publisher’s site: https://www.orcabook.com or Amazon.
I also write board books for our youngest readers (ages 0-3). In my latest book, Country Baby, Mom and baby pull on their boots, splash in puddles, and visit the farm animals.
I have three other books in the series, Beach Baby, City Baby, and Forest Baby with a focus on outdoor rambles (Orca Book Publishers).
My chapter books, Where’s Burgess? and Ruckus take young readers (ages 8-10) into real-life challenges and heart-warming friendships (Orca Book Publishers).
I’m a hiker, a gardener, and a dog-lover. I write stories that I hope kids will love to read, and sometimes there are little tidbits in the books from my life, such as a horse named Sugar, or a terrier that is wild and waggy-tailed. I love to write about places on Vancouver Island and the creatures that live here, but I also set stories in my home town in Ontario.
I was born in Hamilton, but mostly grew up in rural Ontario on the Saugeen Peninsula. I attribute my big imagination to those years of growing up on Isaac Lake. The lake was a bird sanctuary, and ours was the only house near its shore. The lake was full of perch and bass, frogs and birds. I suppose that’s why frogs featured in the very first kid’s book that I wrote. As an adult, I moved back to Hamilton and attended McMaster University where I earned a BA in Literature. I received my MA in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Windsor.
Laurie Elmquist 