After majoring in English at Grinnell College, Natalie attended graduate school at the University of Illinois and holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature and an M.S. in Library and Information Science. She is the Head of the Children’s Department at the Ela Area Public Library District in Lake Zurich, IL where she coordinates a group of the kindest, most enthusiastic and creative children’s librarians ever.
In addition to picture books, she is the author of School and Public Libraries: Developing the Natural Alliance, published by ALA Editions, and an article in Children and Libraries, Summer 2015, entitled “Where Fantasy and Facts Meet: Fairy Science Books from 1870-1900” about her research as a Bechtel Fellow at The Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature at the University of Florida.
She is interested in poetry, nature, international children’s literature, and dinosaur exhibits but, more than anything, she loves to bring books and kids together—in person.
