Dancing Through the Snow (19 page)

Then Jessamyn Randall Hart dropped, into her caseworker’s lap, the long thick braid that had been her anchor for so long, and threw herself into Jess’s waiting arms.

Jean Little says she doesn’t create her characters — she becomes them … and then watches to see what they do. Her fifty books include novels, picture books, poetry and biographies: favourites such as
Mine for Keeps
;
From Anna; Listen for the Singing; Orphan at My Door
(CLA Book of the Year Award);
Brothers Far from Home
(CLA Honour Book and Geoffrey Bilson Award Honour Book);
If I Die Before I Wake
(
ResourceLinks
Best of the Year);
Exiles from the War
(Geoffrey Bilson Award Finalist and Red Cedar Nominee);
Pippin the Christmas Pig
(Mr. Christie’s Book Award);
Listen, Said the Donkey
(Canadian Children’s Book Centre: Our Choice);
The Sweetest One of All
(First and Best Booklist Selection, Toronto Public Library);
Willow and Twig
(Mr. Christie’s Book Award and CLA Book of the Year Award finalist);
Hey, World, Here I Am
(UK Younger Fiction Book of the Year); and
Wishes
.

Dancing Through the Snow
was shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz and Diamond Willow Awards and was named a
ResourceLinks
Best of the Year and an Honourable Mention, OLA Best Bets.

Jean Little is a four-time nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Award, a member of the Order of Canada, and a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. She lives in Guelph, Ontario, with her family, her guide dog and several other pets.