Authors and Illustrators

Featured Author: Lois Peterson

Bibliography at Orca

Meeting Miss 405: Life is hard enough for Tansy with her depressed mom away indefinitely and her dad making a mess of things at home. But then Dad sends her down the hall to a wrinkly old babysitter named Miss Stella, who Tansy hates on sight. Miss Stella has a unique perspective on life, to say the least, but with the help of her best friend Parveen, Tansy gradually learns to manage all the changes in her life and make unexpected new friends in the process.

Interview

Do you put your family and friends in your books? Oh, yes! Not all them, though. I might use someone’s hands, a phrase they often say, the way they hitch up their pants… I might borrow something they wear or re-tell a story someone told me happened to them. When I’m writing, I figure I get to be a thief and liar – in a good way, of course!

What were your favourite books as a child? Peter and the Piskies by Iona and Peter Opie (Cornish folktales), Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare, Laughing Time (poems), The Silver Sword by Ian Serralier

What is your favourite (or funniest) childhood/teenage memory? At boarding school I stole a roll of fruit gums from a girl called Hilary. She was my sister’s best friend, and I really envied her because of her hair – she could flip up the ends in a perfect roll, in a way that would be very unfashionable now. At night Hilary was one of the girls who often snuck into my dorm and tickled me until I peed the bed. I envied her and hated her - so I stole her candy. And would not own up. Ever. Every time I was asked again if it was me, I made up another story. Soon kids kept asking me if I’d taken the fruit gums just to hear what wild story I would come up with. I never told anyone it was me. But I figure I can blame Hilary for the fact that I learned to make up stories.

Is there any other interesting information you want to share? (unusual hobbies, strange pets or notable experiences)?

• When I was nine I ran away from boarding school in my blue housecoat.
• My best friends when I was about five or six were two Iraqi girls called Bethani and Luli who lived in a mud house across the street from me in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
• I love to walk, and a few years ago walked 87 miles in ten days and only saw about eight people and hundreds of sheep on my way across the South Downs Way in England. I sang much of the way (but the sheep did not like my singing).

Biography

Lois Peterson wrote short stories and articles for adults for twenty years before turning to writing for kids. Recently retired from her job as a librarian, she lives in Surrey, British Columbia, where she writes, reads and teaches creative writing to adults, teens and children.