The Book of Small

Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1871, and died there in 1945. She studied art in San Francisco, London and Paris. Except for a period of fifteen years when she was discouraged by the reception to her work, she was a commited painter. After 1927, when she was encouraged by the praise of the Group of Seven, interest in her paintings grew and she gained recognition as one of Canada's most gifted artists. Now, nearly sixty years after her death, her reputation continues to grow.

Sarah Ellis is an award-winning writer and children's librarian, as well as being a sought-after speaker at conferences and workshops throughout North America and Europe. She has taught children's literature at colleges and universities in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan, and she has been a core lecturer and seminar leader at the Children's Literature New England conferences since 1993. Between 1984 and 1998 she was the regular columnist on Canadian children's books for Horn Book Magazine. She is also the humour editor for the electronic children's literature journal, The Looking Glass.

Ellis is the author of 13 books for young people, including the Governor General's Award-winning Pick-Up Sticks, Out of the Blue (winner of the IODE Violet Downey Book Award and the Mr. Christie's Book Award) and The Baby Project (published as The Family Project in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster and Dell). In 1995, she won the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work, and in 1999 she was the first children's author to be named Writer-in-Residence at Massey College at the University of Toronto.