Elizabeth Raum, Writer

I love being a writer! For several years I worked as a teacher and a librarian. This helped prepare me for the challenges of writing books for today's readers, young and old. I spend my days doing research, taking notes, and writing. I love learning about how people lived in other times and places. Only after hours of research do I put my notes together to create an original book. Then I revise - and revise some more. It's a happy day when I get a copy of the finished book in the mail.

I enjoy reading and writing fiction, too. I always have a novel or two in progress, and I take great pleasure in knowing that many families now include Follow That Star as a Christmas favorite.

Students often ask me when I started writing. I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Brown, assigned us to write poems. Mine was a four line verse about snowflakes, and when Mrs. Brown said to me, "You'll be a writer when you grow up," I was thrilled. It became my secret desire. When I meet with students, it is especially fun when one or two step forward to tell me that they plan to become writers, too.