• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Lisa is a spunky, mischievous ten-year-old, living on a farm in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley. In preparation for the school’s Science Fair, Lisa convinces her classmate and cousin, Paul, that they should camp out on the front lawn one night to take pictures of UFOs. Paul is skeptical - likely just another one of Lisa’s hairbrained ideas! But the pair get a whole lot more than they bargained for when a real, live alien appears on their front lawn. Suddenly, Lisa has radically new ideas about what she and Paul will do for the Science Fair!

Rosemary Nelson was born in the small town of Dinsmore, Saskatchewan, where her parents owned and operated a grain farm. Living in the wide open spaces with neighbourhood children few and far between, her imagination became her best friend. She did not have access to many books, but she developed an early love of reading and with the help of a subscription to a children’s book club and her family’s own collection of classics, the magic of books became central to her childhood. Although creative writing was not encouraged in schools at that time as it is today, she always knew that she wanted to write. After finishing school, she moved to British Columbia, married, finished her teaching degree and raised a family, putting her desire to write temporarily on hold. She currently lives with her husband in the beautiful Okanagan Valley where they raise alpacas. She was a classroom teacher for twenty years and worked part-time as a teacher-librarian. Creative writing has always been her favourite teaching subject. Since the publication of her first children’s novel, Dragon in the Clouds (Napoleon, 1994), Rosemary has gained a reputation as a charismatic and lively presenter. She has appeared at many schools, bookstores and Vancouver’s Word on the Street. She has also been the featured author at two Young Author’s Conferences and enjoys giving writing workshops to young students as well as teaching night school writing courses at the local college. She was chosen to tour to Nunavut for Children’s Book Week in November of 2002 under the auspices of the Canadinan Children’s Book Centre. One of Rosemary’s main goals as a writer is to provide children with quality literature that will turn them on to the magic of words. In her writing, she tries to think of silly situations that will make children laugh, but also situations that will allow them to hope. She has written four novels, including The Golden Grasshopper, Galena’s Gift and Hubcaps and Puppies.

Rosemary Nelson's profile page