Carmen’s reading buddy was a yellow duck ride-on toy. Together, they wheeled around her world reading nursery rhymes by Mother Goose, poems from Shel Silverstein, and picture books by Dr. Seuss. With her grandmother, they read her favorite book SANDMAN'S STORY OF TWINKLE-EYES before bed. At night, she dreamt about the mice characters living inside the kitchen pantry and the wily cat Puss that dogged their every move. Story was rooted inside of her and before long she began planting story seeds of her own.

She grew up in southern Manitoba, Canada, surrounded by lakes and prairie grasses. She built tree forts, caught tadpoles, sailed on homemade rafts and concocted mud pies and snow slushies. In high school, she anchored on the TV and radio station and wrote for the school newspaper, but eventually she entered a computer science program at college and began writing as a programmer analyst. In 2000, she married an amazing man and their three beautiful children became her new reading buddies. Inspired by parenthood, she cultivated new stories and nurtured them until they blossomed and produced fruit. BEARS MAKE THE BEST READING BUDDIES is her debut picture book. When she’s not writing, she loves gardening, cheering on her kids from the sidelines and blue-sky days. Carmen lives in Round Rock, TX with her family.

Books by Carmen Oliver

Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies

written by Carmen Oliver with illustrations by Jean Claude - Animals , Children's 4-6, Education, Friendship, Picture