Jean E. Pendziwol was born in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior and spent much of her childhood aboard her family's sailboat, exploring the islands and bays of the inland sea. After working as a freelance writer and photographer, she spent several years focusing on raising her three children before publishing her first children's book. She lives in Ontario, in the shadow of the Nor'Wester Mountains, with her husband, two of her three grown children, a loveable mutt, and three temperamental chickens, who sometimes lay eggs.