|
 ANN ALMA
CHILDREN'S
AUTHOR
 Ann was born in Holland, in the small town of Uit-huiz-er-meeden which,
translated literally, is "out-houses in the meadows"! Before she could
even walk she rode into town on her mother's bicycle's front carrier.
 Once she could take
some steps it was hard to hold her back. She wanted to go, go, go all
the time, even when she had to stay with her older sister.
Ann made her first solo
journey when, as a toddler, in
a bottomless playpen, she walked off the lawn, down the driveway and
onto the road, carrying her playpen with her. As soon as she started
kindergarten she decided she wanted to be a teacher. She made art
projects even back then, with building in the sand box being her
favorite.
  Ann was a gardener right from the
beginning. At age four her father gave her a corner of his garden so
Ann could grow her own flowers and fruits.
Here she is
showing off her raspberry
canes.
|
 As a child
Ann entertained her siblings on their one-hour walks to school with
installments of stories that continued on their next walk. She wrote
her first "book" at the age of seven. Ann was born into a family of
actors and she learned at a young age to tell stories and act out plays
from books.
 The
Alma family loved
animals. Dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, even a donkey and
a pony were part of Ann's early life. As a young person she had her own
favorite animals.
All this gave Ann the confidence
for her future solo travels
with a backpack. She journeyed around the world twice and worked in a
number of countries.
|
Some of her most memorable
jobs were bottle-feeding
orphaned lambs in New Zealand, riding a horse to check pasture fences
in Australia, helping the toddlers of Somali refugees in Kenya find
firewood so they could eat their one meal a day, teaching orphans in
Zambia, teaching cross-cultural studies to a group of Maoris in New
Zealand, to Japanese students, and to Inuit children in Aklavik and
Tuktoyaktuk (Northwest Territories). Ann has travelled on water-skis,
cross-country skis, on foot, by bicycle, motorbike and balloon.  These days she journeys with
Shira, her border collie.
 Ann became a teacher
while still living in Holland. She immigrated to Canada in 1970 and
became a Canadian citizen in 1975. Over twenty-five years she taught
students from kindergarten to collage in five different countries.
 While teaching
intermediate grades in Armstrong, B.C., Ann wrote her first novel in
the early morning hours and on weekends. With the backing of her
enthusiastic students, Ann sent the manuscript off to publishers and
this became her widely acclaimed best-selling novel Skateway to
Freedom. Ann quit teaching in 1992. She bought a house in the West
Kootenay mountains and became a fulltime writer.
She is a member of CANSCAIP, CWILL BC, TWUC, and CCBC
|
Ann's
favorite hobbies are still the activities she started as a child. She
loves writing and walking in the mountains with her dog, Shira, and
playing with her cat, Miepke. She gardens from spring to fall while she
travels and camps when she can pull herself away from writing her next
book.
| While being
snowed in during the Kootenay winter, skiing and reading keep her busy. |
* * * * * *
|
|
