About Laura

Fascinating Facts About Laura

• I share a birthday with America’s 1st president, George Washington, and also Broadway legend Lea Salonga, actor Drew Barrymore, and YouTuber Cheappickle.

• I grew up in New Jersey, not far from New York City, but my family spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents in England.

• Speaking of England, my mother is from Nottingham, where the Robin Hood legend was born.

• Before I could read, I knew the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter by heart. Sometimes my tired parents tried to skip a page, but I was not fooled!

• I have big sister energy. My middle brother is three years younger than I am and I was almost eight years old when my youngest brother was born.

• Two of my favorite things to do as a kid were climbing trees and reading. Finding a cozy reading nook in a tree was the best.

• Some of my favorite books in elementary school were: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (which was passed around by my whole fifth grade class), The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes. The first poem I remember reading was “The Swing,” in Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. But the book that truly swept me to another time and place and made me want to be an author was one I read in middle school, Jane Eyre by  Charlotte Brontë.

• I grew up with pets. Our Lhasa Apso dog Mitzi Lou and gray tabby cat Trini were best friends (Trini’s mama was my friend Trudy’s cat Pearly Mae). Since then, my husband, kids, and I have had many wonderful dogs, cats, even a hamster. Currently, we share our home with a very dramatic beagle named Arthur and also Abbi, a beagle mix who gives our house grandma energy.

• When I’m not making up stories, I love making other things. I knit, bake cookies (gluten free!), garden, and create doodles and collages for fun. Legos and jigsaw puzzles? Yes, please! Recently, I started piano lessons—something I haven’t done since I was 14 years old.

• All of my novels are set in Maryland. “The Free State” is where my two kids grew up and where I’ve lived for nearly half my life.

• I believe in the power of stories. Whether a book transports us to the future or the past, is filled with magical creatures like dragons or ordinary modes of travel like bikes and buses, reading helps us understand ourselves and connect with others. We all deserve to see ourselves reflected in the books we read.

Read a few of my Poems For Kids!

• “Bark at the Park,” Author Penny Parker Klosterman’s Blog

• “Flood: Ellicott City, Maryland,” HoCoPoLitSo

Find more of my novels and poetry here!