Margot Griffin loves kids, books and writing.

Before she could even read she would sit and tell herself stories.

Her favorite outing was when her Dad held her little hand in one of his big hands and her sister’s in the other and walked them to their small town library. Margot could hardly believe there was a whole roomful of children’s books! And she could borrow not just one but two!

As a Girl Guide, she earned her Writer’s badge. The summer she was twelve she organized the neighborhood kids as newspaper reporters. They wrote The King Street Report and delivered it to all the houses on their street. As a Playground Leader, at age 14, she wrote her first newspaper column for The Petrolia Advertiser Topic. It was called The Playground Report.

When she was a teacher, she loved making up stories just for her class. She believed that helping a child learn to read was the best job in the whole world. As a teacher-librarian she made coming to the library fun even for kids who had trouble reading. She loved reading them stories, in all kinds of funny and spooky voices. And she tried hard to find books that matched the faces and lives of all her students (who came from over thirty different countries).

Her favorite kid in the whole world is her daughter, Nicole. Their favorite read-together novel was Anne Frank. Nicole is now studying dance at York University. She is Margot’s inspiration for her dancing character Meggy.

When Nicole had sleepovers, Margot loved hearing the sounds of giggling girls running through their house. So when she needed testers for the fun games, cool crafts and yummy snacks in her Sleepover book. her daughter and friends happily volunteered.

As a freelance writer Margot loves writing her columns for The Toronto Sunday Star’s Starship . The Wild Notes of Animalia Jones is a nature column. Funny Business is her joke column.

When she is writing, her fuzzy little dog Buddy sits on her barefeet and keeps them warm. When she needs to read her writing aloud he cocks his adorable little head and listens carefully. Margot describes him as being half cuddle bug and half spunky monkey.

Her husband Phil checks her stories because although she has a great imagination he is better at grammar and punctuation. Together they help each other be the best that they can be. As a family they love to be together and get caught up by telling each other all their stories. They live happily in a story book cottage in London Ontario.