Martha's life

Martha Freeman was born in Southern California in 1956. It is not actually true that pterodactyls ruled the skies then, but her three children believe this.

Martha graduated from Glenoaks Elementary, Woodrow Wilson Junior High, and Glendale High School. Until Martha came along, Glendale High's most famous graduate was a fellow named Marion Michael Morrison. He later went into the film game and changed his name to John Wayne, which you might very well do, too, if you were a boy named Marion in unenlightened times. In 1978, Martha graduated from Stanford University with a degree in history. She remains Stanford's most illustrious graduate if not its most wealthy.

Martha worked as a newspaper reporter, copy editor, substitute teacher, college lecturer, advertising copywriter, and freelance magazine writer before she found her true calling as a writer of children's books in 1994. Her first book was Stink Bomb Mom, now, tragically, out of print. She has since published 11 more books for children and as you read this, she is probably working on another one. Besides writing and visiting schools to talk to students, Martha teaches occasional classes at Penn State University and works for a wonderful little company called Wall Street Communications. She is a very busy person.

In 1995, Martha's family moved from Sonora, California, to State College, Pennsylvania. Martha's book, The Year My Parents Ruined My Life, is very loosely based on this move and in particular how it affected her oldest daughter, Sylvie. Her other two children, Rosa and Ethan, are also reflected in the characters in the book. When she was a kindergartner, Rosa was a little like Dani, the "dancing ballerina snowflake princess," and Ethan, at age 2, was a lot like the toddler next door, "Nicky Red Suit."

Today, Martha's children are almost grown up, which is amazing when you consider that Martha herself has not gotten any older. Sylvie and Rosa are now students at colleges that are almost as fancy as they are expensive, and Ethan is an all-star baseball player. You will see how watching many, many, many baseball games has influenced Martha's writing if you read her 2008 book, Who Stole Uncle Sam?

Pets – especially cats – have always been important to Martha. That's why almost every single one of her books has cats as characters. Unfortunately, Martha is for the time being living a pet-free life.