Stephanie Simpson McLellan

My first picture book, The Chicken Cat (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000), won both The Mr. Christie Award and The Ruth Schwartz Award and was a finalist for two others. Leon's Song (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004) was a finalist for both The Blue Spruce and Chocolate Lily picture books awards. Hoogie in the Middle (Pajama Press, May 2013) launched my picture book series about monster siblings Hoogie (the middle child/monster), Pumpkin and Tweezle. Tweezle into Everything (August 2013) continues the series, featuring Tweezle, the baby of the family.

Prior to the release of The Christmas Wind (Red Deer Press, Dec 2017), I worked with almost 1,700 primary students in every province/territory of Canada (plus one school in Australia) on a unique literacy initiative that resulted in over 13,000 student drawings of Jo, Murdock and the wind. The Christmas Wind Story Project involved the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in the spring of 2016, and was a top 10 finalist in the 2016 CST Inspired Minds Learning Project Contest (www.ChristmasWindStoryProject.com).

Both The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe (OwlKids Books, Apr 2021) and my debut mid-grade novel Sully, Messed Up (Red Deer Press, Feb 2021) were inspired by the life and times of my son!

While my "day job" is marketing and consulting within corporate Canada, I've written several scripts for the Gemini nominated children's television series Roll Play, and I was a columnist and the children's book reviewer for Today's Parent Magazine from 2001-2012 (I had the privilege of interviewing the late Maurice Sendak for the September 2011 issue).

I am a member of The Writers' Union of Canada, The Canadian Children's Book Centre, The Canadian Bookseller's Association, CANSCAIP, and SCBWI. My BA in English Literature is from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and my MBA from the University of Toronto.