Rebecca Upjohn

Author

I was born and grew up in Toronto. My love of books began after our TV blew up when I was about three. My family turned to reading. There was nothing I loved more than snuggling into a warm lap to hear a story. It wasn’t long before I learned to read on my own so I didn’t have to wait for someone else to tell me what happened next. Then I began to make up my own stories and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Photo: Aarin MacKay
Our house was filled with books and odd pets that included a wild grackle named Kack. Living with furry, feathered and scaly creatures made me wonder what stories they would tell if we spoke the same language.
In high school, I wrote songs for my rock band, the RADS. Then I went on to study photography at Ryerson. I worked as a photographer until I got married and had two boys. Not long after our younger son was born we moved to New Hampshire in the USA. There, I worked on a sheep farm. It was a world of fresh wonders: seeing newborn lambs, driving tractors and herding sheep.

Now back in Toronto with my family, I feel like the luckiest person alive to be writing for children. Entering other worlds through a story still feels magical to me.

Lily and the Paper Man is my first published book.