Biography

I was an outdoor child – biking, swimming, endless nights of tag, hide-and-seek, and touch football. My book reading occurred at night, snuggled in bed, the light on past midnight, telling myself the lie, “Just one more chapter.”

My love of picture books became deep and enduring in my early twenties, when I taught in a preschool (though teaching toddlers is more like being a Maypole, something to dash around and occasionally hold onto). That love continued to grow when I became a mother, and then a grandmother, reading aloud, and never minding repeating our favorites.

Half my lifetime ago, six of my books were published by Children’s Press, now an imprint of Scholastic. Four titles were part of their Rookie Reader series: Too Many Balloons, I Love Cats, Over-Under, and Out the Door. Two nonfiction titles: I Can Be a Police Officer and I Can Be a Computer Operator were included in their career series. Two of the fiction books are also part of a 3-book edition. In 2021, my adult nonfiction book, The Word Gobblers – a handbook for parents (and teachers) working with children struggling to read, was published.

When the Sky Turned to Dust, published in 2025, is a middle grade, historical fiction novel of courage, of the sacrifices families make, and the support neighbors give neighbors. It is about one family meeting the challenges and obligations of life on the prairie.

It takes place during one of the most difficult eras in American history. By 1934, Americans were in the middle of twin catastrophes: the worst economic depression ever suffered and the worst drought in memory devastating the Midwest. Approximately a quarter of the population affected by the dust storms had left the region.

When their mother takes their youngest sibling to New York, twelve-year-old Caroline Dolan and her nine-year-old brother, Daniel, argue to stay with their father to help save their Kansas farm. As the number and ferocity of the storms increase, Caroline’s anger and resentment grow when she takes on the responsibilities of a grown woman.

On April 14, 1935, the largest and deadliest storm ever recorded, rips through Kansas. It will become known as Black Sunday, and the term “Dust Bowl” will be coined. Daniel is swept away by the wind. He clings to the windmill unable to see or hear above the storm. With their father away, it is up to Caroline to save him.

While starting a business near Portland, Oregon, with my husband, Stewart Jones, nearly thirty years ago, then relocating to rural Joseph on the eastern side of the state, I continued to work on my manuscripts in the quiet moments.