Catherine Friend
Catherine Friend had what she calls a "boring" childhood, but she says that boring was just fine -- because it gave her more time to read. She read so much her parents had to set a "no-reading-at-the dinner-table" rule. She was slightly shy as a child, but enjoyed playing Beauty Parlor with her sister, taking family trips, and watching STAR TREK and TIME TUNNEL.
She studied Economics, but because of her love for books and stories, she eventually found herself drawn to writing. Since then, the author has written six children's books, including THE PERFECT NEST, a hilarious read-aloud illustrated by John Manders; and two books in Candlewick’s Brand New Readers series. She is also the author of the acclaimed adult memoir, HIT BY A FARM: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BARN. When it comes to her writing, Catherine Friend likes to try new things and seek new challenges -- but she always likes to write stories that make her laugh.
Catherine Friend lives on a small farm in southeastern Minnesota -- which inspired both THE PERFECT NEST and HIT BY A FARM. There, she raises sheep, goats, and llamas, and has an energetic border collie named Robin.
“If I start doing more things with my hands, whether that's woodworking or gardening or knitting or baking cookies, I might fall into the condition made famous by the psychologist with the impossible name: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. That condition is "flow." It means becoming completely involved in an activity not for the sake of the outcome but for the sheer joy of it. It means feeling alive when we are fully in the groove of doing something. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the path to greatest happiness lies not with mindless consuming but with challenging ourselves to experience or produce something new, becoming in the process more engaged, connected and alive.”
“If we are going to start calling industrial corn sustainable, then we might as well say that petroleum is a renewable resource if you're willing to wait long enough.”
“Would it really be so bad if you slowed your life down even a teensy bit? If you took charge of the ingredients of your food instead of letting corporations stuff you and your family, like baby birds, full of sugar, corn products, chemicals, and meat from really, really unhappy animals?”