Jean Little began writing as a child and, encouraged by her family, has continued ever since. Victoria’s poem was one that Jean created when she was only twelve. To date she has written over forty novels and ten picture books, three books of short stories and poetry, and two autobiographies — Stars Come Out Within and Little by Little. Her other books in the Dear Canada series are CLA Honour Book Brothers Far from Home, If I Die Before I Wake and Geoffrey Bilson Award Finalist Exiles from the War. She has also written novels such as Mama’s Going to Buy You a Mockingbird, Listen for the Singing, Mine for Keeps, From Anna and Dancing Through the Snow. Such books have won her many prestigious awards, among them the CLA Book of the Year Award; the Ruth Schwartz Award; the Canada Council Children’s Literature Prize; the Violet Downey Award; the Little, Brown Canadian Children’s Book Award and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book Award. She received the Vicky Metcalf Award in 1974 for her Body of Work, and is a member of the Order of Canada. Orphan at My Door won the CLA Book of the Year Award.
Jean was inspired to write her first novel, Mine for Keeps, while teaching at the Guelph Crippled Children’s Centre. Sally, the story’s heroine, is a real character in every way. How was Jean able to make her so? Perhaps because she can imagine what life is like for a girl with a physical challenge: Whenever you see Jean Little you’ll always see a dog, too, because Jean is blind. Her current guide dog, Honey, was preceded by Jean’s earlier guide dogs, Pippa, Ritz and Zephyr.
How does Jean write her books? She types them into a computer program which then “reads” aloud what she has written. She reads all the time (usually books on CD), even when she’s writing one of her own books. Jean says that when she can’t read, she can’t write.
Readers often remark how true, how real, the people are in Jean Little’s books. Characters come to Jean, walk into her mind, and demand to be written about. “My characters are real enough,” she says, “that if I get halfway through writing a book and decide I don’t want to finish it, what makes me finish it is the characters. Because if I don’t finish it, it’s like killing them. Their only chance to live is if I finish the book.”
Jean’s gift is the way she has of listening to those characters, following where they lead, guided by an uncanny knack for creating a story with conflict and drama, and peopled by real characters. She once said, “Your only responsibility as a writer is to be true to the story that has chosen you as its writer.”
Jean grew up in Guelph, in the house she has used as the setting for this story. She makes regular visits to schools to meet with fans of her many stories. She tells them that “the best place for your nose is inside a book, so keep reading a Little.”