This is me,
taller

also me...

   email me

I've been drawing and writing my whole life.

As a kid I often drew pictures to go with famous stories.
I kept sketch journals of my life, too.
One of my favorites is from when I visited Mexico as a teenager,
with the Spanish Club in high school.
And two were entered in the Detroit News Scholastic Writing Awards,
http://www.scholastic.com/artandwritingawards/enter.htm,
where I won two thick red dictionaries with my name engraved in gold.
I still have the sketchbooks and the dictionaries.  :)

As a grown-up I worked in the advertising field, drew cartoons,
illustrated for newspapers, created all sorts of art,
and won 6 national essay-writing contests.

Then I started writing and illustrating kids' books, and
discovered that's what I want to do for the rest of my life.

It was a long, tough road to publication. I worked very hard,
rewriting and redrawing many times, trying to make it my best.
When I was little I thought famous authors and illustrators
did their art perfectly the first time. I learned that's usually not true.

I grew up in the Detroit area and now live in Lansing, Michigan,
with my family and a houseful of pets.
Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel is my first book for kids,
and Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School is my second.  :)

MEDIA: click here for downloadable photo & caricature