I have always loved books. My mother and father valued, read, and purchased books. We lived near great public libraries, too. The bookmobile was a favorite of mine in Levittown, New York, where we lived until I was ten years old. Then we moved to Ballwin, Missouri, near St. Louis. I started writing while attending Parkway West High School but didn't think of pursuing a literary career. Because I earned high praise from my family for my cooking and baking, I enrolled in a cooking school. After attending a year at the Culinary Institute of America, I worked at a hotel restaurant for a year before enrolling at Memphis State and then at the University of Missouri, majoring in home economics.I married and stayed at home after our daughter, Emily, was born, writing during her long afternoon naps. Soon after our second daughter, Sarah, was born, my husband and I divorced, and I continued to pursue my college degree. After marrying Steve Houts, a farmer, we both attended college. My father (who had great insight) recommended I try library science, which would marry my love for books with my writing life. Majoring in library science, I earned a B.S. degree from Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, and Steve earned a B.S. in education. Steve--the love of my life--has always supported my career choices first in the Office of Career Services on the Northwest Missouri State University campus, then as a children's librarian at the Maryville Public Library, and as a preschool teacher at Head Start. But I longed to be at home writing. Currently, I am doing just that! Freelance writing at home is a dream come true. I am the author of over 60 books for children. My favorite target age group is three to seven, but I've written books for middle school and high school students. I write the text for leveled readers, both fiction and nonfiction, using Flesch-Kincaid and Lexile measures. Writing on assignment for educational publishers is a welcome challenge. I've worked with a variety of publishers. Compass Media and Korea Hermanhesse publish books to help children learn English. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw Hill (through the Bill Smith Group/QBS Learning) publish books for schools. David C. Cook publishes books for Christian education. I've written books on assignment for these publishers:• Compass Media• Korea Hermanhesse• The Rosen Publishing Group• Stone Arch (a division of Capstone)• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • McGraw Hill • Pearson Learning Group• Learning Horizons• Dalmatian Press• David C. CookWhen our two daughters were growing up, we cooked together. I wrote about our experiences in a monthly column, "Preschooler in the Kitchen," for Parent & Preschooler Newsletter. After writing columns for a number of years, I wrote a cookbook, "Learning Through Cooking Activities," which taught children colors, shapes, cooperation, and more, through food. I love spending time in my kitchen, which is a bright and cheery room decorated with sunflowers. As years passed, I wrote two more cookbooks for children, Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun, and Cooking Around the Country with Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities. Recently, I published a cookbook, Mealtime Magic: Delicious Dinners in Half the Time, the first from my own publishing company, Houts & Home Publications LLC.