BIO

Writing has been a family trait among Marthe Jocelyn's relatives for over a century, although the children's book author only recently discovered that fact. "My family has owned a house in Ontario since my grandparents moved in nearly one hundred years ago," she explains. "The attic closets in this house are still full; from time to time, I unwrap a treasure or peer into an envelope I haven't noticed before. That is how I came across two school notebooks, filled in with faded pencil script."

The diaries had belonged to Marthe Jocelyn's grandmother, Mable Rose, who little could have imagined that one hundred years later they would inspire the middle-grade novel MABLE RILEY. "Although my grandmother's days were tedious and narrow, the tiny moments she recorded so meticulously were the very ones that piqued my interest," says Marthe Jocelyn of the journal describing her grandmother's first spring as the teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. "There is no plot, no characters of great interest, certainly no Jane Austen intrigue!" Another surprise was in store for the contemporary author, however. "Hidden on the back pages were a few lines of dreadful romantic poetry. Just enough to reveal a secret heart beating beneath that freshly ironed collar. Just enough to reveal a character to me; a yearning and curious girl, at odds with the docility expected of her. That's when Mable Riley was born."

Written as a turn-of-the-century journal, MABLE RILEY is a record of a young girl's coming of age at the time of women's early struggles for independence. Funny, inspiring, and all-around charming, MABLE RILEY has won fans across North America. "Three cheers for Mable Riley and a hurrah for author Marthe Jocelyn. . . . Readers will delight in and applaud Mable finding her voice," says Ken Setterington, Children and Youth Advocate for Library Services, Toronto Public Library, and co-author of A GUIDE TO CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Megan McDonald, author of the best-selling Judy Moody series, enthuses, "Mable Riley is the best of everyday heroines--imaginative and funny, a thinker and a dreamer. Readers will laugh out loud at her Anne-of-Green-Gables hijinks, and cheer her independent thinking all the way."

Before becoming a full-time writer and illustrator, Marthe Jocelyn spent time as a theatre usher, a cookie salesperson, a waitress, a sailor, a photo stylist, and a toy designer. She now lives in New York with her husband and two teenage children.

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