Jan Thornhill was born in Sudbury and grew up living on the outskirts of small communities where the fields and woods became her world.  She chose to go to OCAD after leaving school and when she graduated, decided to try free- lancing as an illustrator and to her surprise found employment this way for over 10 years.  After she met her husband Fred in 1981, Jan started writing, and in 1987 wrote and illustrated her first children’s book – the Wildlife ABC, which is still in print. Jan has won many awards including the 2015 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, a lifetime achievement award presented by the Writers’ Trust of Canada,^[2]  and, most recently, the TD Children’s Literature Award for The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk. Jan lives with her husband Fred in a house they built in the woods near Havelock, Ontario.

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