About Julie Berry

I’m the youngest of seven clever children, none of whom are children anymore, but they’re all still clever. I spent my early years desperate to catch up to what they were reading, and sit at the big kids’ table.

Now with four sons of my own, ages 13, 12, 9, and 6, I eat every meal at the big kids’ table.

I grew up on a 50-acre farm complete with pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and oodles of cats and dogs. There was a pond full of frogs and turtles, a crick full of crawdads and minnows, woods full of rusted farm equipment, and fields full of milkweed and poison ivy. Heaven.

Grade school and high school years were a blur of piano lessons, volleyball, track, musicals, clubs, babysitting jobs, and lots of reading. I took beloved books to bed with me like other girls took teddy bears, nestling down under the covers with them. I still do it today. My patient husband stacks them on his bedside table before turning off the light.

I attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, graduating with a B.S. in communication. At RPI, I met my husband, and we married during my last semester. Somehow we ended up with four clever boys, and a cat. We’re lucky.

After my fourth son was born, I decided that since my dream of having a family was now firmly established, it was time to pursue my second dream, writing novels. Eventually I received an M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of the Fine Arts, where I learned from many talented and committed writers for young people. The Amaranth Enchantment was the second novel I wrote in school, and the first one to sell to a publisher. Since then I've written Secondhand Charm, which is soon to be released, and the Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series with my older sister, Sally Faye Gardner, as the illustrator.

There’s not much I enjoy more than writing – though eating is a close contender. With any luck, there'll be more novels to talk about soon -- stay tuned!