Chris Loker

Chris Loker is the author of children’s books and books about children’s literature. But that wasn’t always the case. In 2000 she stepped out of one life and into another. Previously, Chris had worked successfully in corporate Human Resources, a career she loved, at companies such as Levi Strauss, Bank of America, and Universal Studios; her last corporate position was Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Charles Schwab. Then, far too early, her first husband died, and life changed utterly. After becoming a single working mother with a teenage son, Chris took solace one day in a lunchtime visit to nearby antiquarian bookshops, looking for two out-of-print volumes. She stepped over the threshold of John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, a beautiful bookshop, and met British proprietor John Windle, who helped her in the following months to locate her volumes. John likes to say, referring to the film “Notting Hill,” that “Chris walked into a bookshop and ended up with a bookseller.” Chris and John married, with Chris working in the antiquarian book world thereafter. She ultimately established her own book shop, Children’s Book Gallery, specializing in children’s books from 1650 to 1950 offering charm, character, and color. Selling books eventually led Chris to writing books based on the success of her book exhibition with a 300-page catalogue, titled "One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature," published by the Grolier Club in New York. From there it was only a matter of time before Chris had written five children’s picture books, including "Sapphire Starfish"; "In Awhile, Crocodile"; "Alastair Acorn"; "Circus Alphabet"; and "African Counting Song." Her most recent book on children’s literature is called "A Shimmer of Joy: One Hundred Children’s Picture Books." Currently Chris is hard at work on a volume about the history of the illustrated book for children, and on several additional children’s picture books. She lives outside San Francisco with husband, John Windle, and often visits their son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons in San Diego.