I have hugged a killer whale, performed in a Broadway musical with my eyes closed, danced at Cinderella’s castle past midnight, and have a knack for accomplishing the impossible. I love being a children’s book author.
I’ll start with what my younger friends always want to know:
- I love ALL kinds of foods: Greek, Mexican, Korean, Puerto Rican, Thai, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Indian, American…. It’s easier to say what I don’t like: I don’t like food that still has eyeballs. Also – cow tongue weirds me out. I imagine that whatever I’m tasting could be tasting me back!
- Favorite color? White.
- I love to dance.
- My favorite picture book is When the Sun Rose by Barbara Berger.
- My favorite movie is Ponyo, though Encanto is a close second.
- My family’s first pet was a fat toad named Bofus.
- My name is pronounced Kam-bree-uh Pet-it.
I grew up travelling, meeting fascinating people – and finding more and more places to love. My siblings and I would build forts in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. In Utah, we would watch for the Bear Lake monster, eating bowls of sun-drenched raspberries swimming in cream. Then we would go home to the fire sunsets of Arizona. I couldn’t get enough of flying above the clouds.
My degree is in Early Childhood Education with a specialization in Fine Arts plus an ESL endorsement. I have received many awards, but my favorite so far is that I graduated SUMO (summa) cum laude, since I’m small.
Before creating the beautiful (and hilarious) Sprouty Kids reading series, I published a picture book (Ursula the Ugly Unicorn) to raise money to free children from slavery. Before that, I wrote over 30 children’s books for a company in China – with a readership of over 300,000.
My bat biologist husband, our 8 children, and I have resided together all over the globe. We just moved back to the States from Europe.
Writing is delicious. Like cotton candy – sparkling threads breathing with imagination.
Sweet.
In the morning, before my family’s wild shenanigans, laughter, and muck… I pray. I pull my thoughts together. Then I write. That is when I begin the impossible.
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