"The Great Game" in The Red Gumboot Storytime Colouring Book(Spring 2008)

 I have been a student, lover, and writer of poetry since I could read.  I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University in 2004 with a major in English, followed quickly by a Bachelor of Education that has allowed me to pursue my career as a high school English teacher.  I currently work as a substitute teacher in Maple Ridge, BC, as well as being a Jani-King cleaning franchise owner with my husband Bryan.  I have always enjoyed writing poetry (especially of the rhyming kind!) and I am thrilled to have my work become a part of this wonderful book.

Birthday:April 29

Favorite Children’s Books:

A Child’s Garden of Verses                                                                                                                   by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Narnia Chronicles                                                                                                                          by C.S. Lewis

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!                                                                                                                     by Dr Seuss

The Walrus and the Carpenter (poem)                                                                                           by Lewis Carroll

Favorite Quotes:

“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”                                                                                           -from the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Love Conquers All”                                                                                                                                 -from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

Artistic Inspirations:

My grandfather, Fred Richards, who was also a writer of children’s poems
My grade 10/11 English teacher, Fred Howell, who always encouraged and inspired my writing
Poets, past and present, that I have studied through the years.  Too many to mention!