Andrea Torrey Balsara

I am an author and illustrator, artist, beekeeper, comic book-nerd, and nature nut. I have written and/or illustrated a number of books, from picture books to young adult novels. I write and illustrate for young adults under the name A.T. Balsara.

If I weren't an author/illustrator, I'd probably be gardening, bird-watching, and beekeeping. I love nature, but there's something about the pull of creating my own stories, my own worlds, that keeps me coming back. My most recent book, The Great & the Small, is an illustrated novel for young adults. In it, I explored the world through the eyes of a rat colony hell-bent on destroying humanity using the bubonic plague. It's a dark story, and yet one that is ultimately about the strength of the human spirit. The black and white pencil drawings in my picture gallery are from The Great & the Small.

My other love, Greenbeard the Pirate Pig, is a very different story, for young readers, about a very different kind of fuzzy critter--a guinea pig who dreams of being a pirate. The idea was inspired by my own guinea pigs, who gobbled down lettuce so quickly and voraciously that their beards turned green. The idea for a swashbuckling, lettuce-guzzling guinea pig was born.

I also illustrate for other authors, and am the illustrator for Philip Roy's Happy the Pocket Mouse series. It's always interesting trying to put images to someone else's words--it gives me a different perspective, and gets me out of my comfort zone, if I am ever in one.

These books are done with every ounce of love, inspiration, and care I can give them. And they are for you.

--Andrea

Andrea Torrey Balsara lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband. She is the proud mom of two adult daughters, two dogs, two cats, and two hives of bees. She writes and illustrates for young children up to young adults, and can be found at www.torreybalsara.com, https://facebook.com/AndreaTorreyBalsaraAuthorIllustrator, and https://www.twitter.com/torreybalsara/.