When I was little, I knew books were magical. I was very lucky to have my own bookcase in my room. I liked to rearrange my books and line them up straight (when I wasn’t reading them). When I was in second grade, I wrote my first story. It was about a bear named Chocolate who adopted a grumpy troll she found when she got lost in the forest. It even won a prize, and at the awards ceremony I met a real, live author who shook my hand and signed her book for me in celebration.
Skipping ahead to college, I worked for publishing companies that took rough ideas and turned them into stacks of shiny, printed books to ship out to customers. Later, I worked at a local bookstore, where I got to watch other shiny, new books go to loving homes. I was all grown up, but I still saw magic in books, from start to finish.
Now, I am a mom and I get to share the magic with my own three little book lovers. We’ve lived in lots of different places because my husband is in the Army. Right now, we live with a whole gaggle of woodland creatures in the Ozark highlands of Missouri.
Here are some things I like:
Collecting interesting rocks
The smell of fresh-cut lumber
Finding constellations
Hiking in the Colorado Rocky Mountains
Learning other languages
Traveling to different countries (can you find Azerbaijan on a map?)
The smell of roasting peppers at fall festivals
Baking cookies
Fun fact: my last name rhymes with lemon!
Libby Demmon graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in English and Music. She is an active member of the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and Julie Hedlund’s 12X12 Picture Book Challenge. She has completed a certificate in Creative Writing through a collaboration with Wesleyan University and NaNoWriMo and takes every opportunity she can to hone her craft by participating in critique groups, classes, and local writing events. She writes picture books and middle grade novels.
