Joann Hamilton-Barry is the author of She Was the Story Girl: How L.M. Montgomery Learned to Never Give Up! and four other books. Joann has been a huge fan of L.M. Montgomery since visiting Green Gables with her family when she was nine years old. Joann’s mother was from PEI and every summer her family spent time visiting relatives and exploring the island of Anne. As a child, Joann was fascinated by the idea that someone from PEI wrote a book that was loved around the world. This idea stayed in the back of Joann’s mind for 50 years.
When Joann retired, after 35 years as a librarian, she began renovating a tiny cottage on PEI. It was during this time that she indulged her love of all things related to Anne of Green Gables. Joann couldn’t stop thinking about the tenacity of this PEI author and the many obstacles that Maud Montgomery overcame to become an author. Joann’s new book tells the fascinating true story of Maud’s difficult childhood and her unstoppable enthusiasm for writing. She Was the Story Girl shows how Maud learned to never give up her dream of becoming a writer.
Joann began her professional career as a grade one teacher in Winnipeg, then went back to school to become a librarian. For nearly 20 years she was a children’s librarian, first in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan then in Saint John, New Brunswick. It took her nearly five years to write and edit her first book, but she never gave up. Boldly Canadian: The Story of the RCMP was published by Kids Can Press while Joann was working as a librarian and parenting two active children. Since then, Joann has written books about searching for treasure on Oak Island, pirates, and the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Joann’s books have received many award nominations. There Be Pirates! Swashbucklers and Rogues of the Atlantic won the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award.
Joann enjoys talking to children and helping them to discover the treasure that can be found in books. She has made more that 80 presentations attended by more than 2500 people, including gigs at the OLA Superconference in Toronto and at Book Expo in New York.
Joann lives in Saint John, NB with her partner Nick Barry and her dog Lucy. Her summers are spent on PEI where you will find her visiting her extended family, walking on the beach or exploring the land of Anne.
Publications:
She Was the Story Girl: How L.M. Montgomery Learned to Never Give Up! (2026, Nimbus)
North Atlantic Right Whale: Past, Present and Future (2019, Nimbus)
There be Pirates! Swashbucklers & Rogues of the Atlantic (2018, Nimbus)
Oak Island and the Search for Buried Treasure (2015, Nimbus)
Boldly Canadian: the Story of the RCMP (1999, Kids Can Press)