Jo Ellen Bogart was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in several Texas cities. For the last 40 years, she has lived in Guelph, Ontario AKA Canadian Children’s Author Central. She really enjoys running into writers and artists at the grocery store.
Jo Ellen has always been an animal lover and pet keeper. Her current pet list is down to a crazy Australian shepherd, a ball python, a box turtle, and a ton of fish who vacation in the backyard pond and winter in the Bogart basement, supervising the laundry.
Part of the fun Jo Ellen has in writing books for children is venturing into many different kinds of writing, from poetry and picture books to biography, non-fiction, and early readers. She has also written lots of song lyrics for kids, and is trying her hand at painting. Jo Ellen really likes to take digital pictures and play around with them on the computer.
Jo Ellen has teaching and psychology degrees from the University of Texas. Though she no longer teaches, she really enjoys meeting her young readers and seeing what they have to say. Her own two kids are grown but she has five grand kids and is amassing stacks of books for the future readers.