Mary Labatt is an award-winning editor and a writer. A graduate of York University, Mary has published many educational briefs, position papers and articles on reading, the effects of poverty on learning, drug awareness, language arts, violence, the needs of adolescents and special education. Mary was the founding editor of the FWTAO Newsletter, a magazine for women teachers, that she edited for 14 years. She is also the author of a history of women teachers in Ontario, called Always a Journey. Mary has been honored for her contribution to education with the prestigious Greer award and has been made a Fellow of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation. #In addition to freelance editing, Mary teaches a week-long course every summer on how to write for children. Now that her family is older, Mary devotes the rest of her time to writing for children and raising dogs. She breeds and raises champion rough collies and Welsh Springer Spaniels, which were imported from Wales. People who read Mary’s children’s books will readily see that she loves dogs, so it is natural that she and her family live on a farm and raise dogs. In the picture Mary is shown with two of her collie mothers, Annabel and Chloe. Mary has said she is never happier than when little fat puppies are running all over the yard.#Mary’s Sam books were based on a real dog. Sam was Mary’s very eccentric, very nosy Old English Sheepdog. Sam used to stare to get her own way and she was insatiably curious. Mary took the idea and created Sam, the dog detective. If you haven’t read the Sam novels, you can meet Sam, the dog detective, in a new series of graphic novels called the Sam and Friends mysteries.#Mary lives on farm in Clear Creek, Ontario, with her husband, Larry, three dogs and two of their three children. Their other daughter just got married, so there will be room now for another dog!

Born in Toronto in 1947, Ann Love graduated with a Masters in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 1970. #A founder of Pollution Probe at the University of Toronto, she ran the education and information programs there until 1972. She and her husband David then moved to Yukon where they were among the founding members of the Carcross Community Education Center, an alternative, co-educational, residential high school open to students from across Canada as well as Yukon. The school, set between Whitehorse and the wilderness, ran a commercial ventures program to offset fees so that students graduated with high school diplomas or upgraded to trades (bakers, steam operators, forest technicians, reporters, etc.). #Ann and David’s oldest child was born in Whitehorse. They moved back to Ontario in 1975 where two more children joined the family. Ann did editorial work for a medical journal, got her teaching degree (University of Toronto, 1990) and eventually became a teacher librarian with the York Region District School Board. Besides her writing, Ann is a botanical watercolor artist, a middling tennis player, a besotted grandmother and an avid naturalist.~ ~Starting in the late 1980s, Ann teamed up with her sister Jane Drake and, together, they have published nearly 30 books. Their works mostly have an environmental focus based on their shared upbringing and travels, with a preference for the remoter parts of Canada.

Barbara Greenwood is the author of 14 books for children and is working on more. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto and taught elementary school. Later, while she was at home raising four children, she decided to pursue an interest in writing historical fiction.#This award-winning author has always been fascinated by history. As a child, Greenwood searched her local library for any historical fiction, enthralled by English history in particular. However, she was struck, even then, by the fact that there were so few novels set in Canada’s past. “I felt as if the place in which I lived didn’t exist”, she says. Greenwood is trying to rectify this situation for today’s children. #In 2007 Kids Can Press re-released Greenwood’s acclaimed The Kids Book of Canada in paperback with updated facts from the 2006 census. This title introduces kids to our nation with maps, timelines, fact boxes and information about each province and territory — including regional landscapes, wildlife, profiles of famous Canadians, important events, provincial and territorial coats of arms and much more. The Kids Book of Canada continues to be an important resource that will enrich everyone’s knowledge and appreciation of Canada.