Bio

Barbara McGrath has written over twenty books for children, including The M&M's Brand Counting Book, winner of "The Teacher's Choice Award" from Learning Magazine, the ABA "Pick of the List", and the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller's List. The Little Green Witch winner of "The Storytelling Honor" from Storytelling World. Her book, The Cheerios Counting Book was also a Publisher's Weekly bestseller. Barbara graduated from Lasell College with a degree in Early Childhood Education. She lives west of Boston, Massachusetts with her husband, Will, their children, Emily and Louis, and a variety of pets.

Barbara was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her parents still live. She has two brothers, Al and John, who did a good job teasing her. When she was little, her grandfather, "Pa" lived with her family. Her neighborhood was full of children! Pa taught the neighborhood children how to count in Italian. Pa passed on to her the love of children, animals and gardening.

Summers were spent on Cape Cod where the ocean became an important part of her life. Today, her hobbies include surfcasting and scuba diving with her daughter, worrying about her son driving a Jeep that needs "work," and reading. Barbara believes she has the largest collection of "sea-pottery" (not to be confused with "sea-glass" ) on the east coast.

After graduating from college Barbara opened a preschool where she taught 4-5 year olds for sixteen years. The educational philosophy was to make learning fun and interesting. The children enjoyed many different and fun ways to learn counting, letters and numbers, and experienced hands-on art and science projects.

While teaching, Barbara was also a freelance writer for local newspapers. Her love for writing, children and making learning fun was the inspiration for her first children's book, The M & M's Brand Counting Book, which has sold over 1 million copies. While writing for children, Barbara also finds time to write public interest articles for newspapers.

Barbara credits her "nerve" to write anything down on a piece of paper to a professor in college, who simply told her she could. She has visited schools all over the country speaking to children about writing and math, to inspire them to write their own books. Her husband, Will handles the business end of her work, which Barbara believes is the hardest part...and yes, let it be known that "The Cheerios Counting Book" was his idea!

The animals that presently live in her house include: a dog, "Padi"; two cats, "Frickels" and "Casey"; two fish, "Plain" and "Peanut"; and a ferret named "Merlin." You can see the McGrath family pets by clicking; The Pet Page.