Margriet Ruurs is the author of 26 books for children. With a Master of Education degree from Simon Fraser University, she teaches writing workshops at elementary schools across North America and has been a guest lecturer at several universities, including Iowa Writing Project at the University of Northern Iowa. She was the recipient of the 2005 Region West Presidential Award for Reading & Technology of the International Reading Association, has conducted writing workshops in Lahore, Pakistan and author visits to International Schools in Indonesia and Malaysia. She writes a regular column as well as freelance articles for Reading Today, the magazine of IRA.

Margriet is a popular speaker at conferences each year, including Illinois State Reading Conference, National Service Learning Conference, Iowa State Reading, IRA National and Regional Conferences, and more. She also conducts school visits throughout the school year, sharing her love of reading and writing with thousands of students and teachers.

“I love to use my imagination and to dream up stories!” she says. Several of her books have won awards, including the Storytellers World Award Honor Title for Emma’s Eggs and short listings for the Mr. Christie Award of Excellence, the Shining Willow and the Chocolate Lily, Blue Spruce, Utah Information Book Award and National Crown Awards. My Librarian is a Camel was awarded Teacher’s Choice Award and named IRA’s Notable Book for Global Awareness.

Many of Margriet’s books reflect her interest in the natural environment: A Mountain Alphabet, When We Go Camping, Wild Babies and Logan’s Lake. She also likes humour as you can tell by reading Virtual Maniac, Silly & Serious Poems for Kids and Ms. Bee’s Magical Bookcase.

For twelve years Margriet conducted children’s programming for Okanagan Regional Libraries. She belongs to a children’s book club and reads, almost exclusively, books for children. “Everyone should read books for children and young adults,” she says, “They are among the best books you could every hope to read!”

Margriet, her husband and two sons have lived in many different places: The Netherlands, where she was born, Alberta, the Yukon and many other parts of the U.S. and Canada. Even though B.C. is still home, she currently lives in Oregon with her park ranger husband. When she’s not busy writing and speaking, Margriet likes to hike or knit. But what she likes best is getting children excited about writing and reading good books!