Natale Ghent

Natale Ghent has been writing stories since she was six. Her first books, written and illustrated, revolved around a family of circles: a momma circle, a papa circle and two baby circles. The momma circle wore a fur stole, distinguishing herself from the papa circle, who wore a fedora, naturally.

Natale graduated from writing about circles to writing and illustrating stories about a small fairy, and later, to stories about talking guinea pigs and eventually humans.

When Natale was very young, she wanted to be an archeologist, a ballerina, a veterinarian, a singer and a magician, but not necessarily in that order. Later in life, she realized she could be all these things and more through her writing. She says, "I never set out to be a novelist in the way that so many do these days. All I knew was that I had a voracious curiosity about life and that I loved telling stories. I simply stumbled along until writing took me by the hand and refused to let go, though I recognize now that there were many signposts guiding me along the way. I come from a long line of consummate story tellers. It just never occurred to me that I could tell stories for a living. And now I can’t imagine doing anything else."

Of NO SMALL THING she says, "The story is based on true events from my childhood. I carried it in my heart for years until it begged to be put on paper. I wrote the book for my family and for anyone, young or old, who has struggled for something they believe in. I never imagined the story would mean so much to so many children. I’m humbled by the letters and stories these children send to me."