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I write for children and teens and I've recently moved back to Canada from Hertford, England. While living overseas, I embarked on weekly adventures with my family and newfound friends in an effort to explore as much of England as possible. Our time in Europe was absolutely life changing for both myself and my family. So many good memories we will revisit for the rest of our lives.

However; most of my life I have lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba where on a typical January day your skin will freeze in 60 seconds and on an ordinary July day you can bask lake-side for hours if slathered in 60 sunblock. England with its mild climate was a lovely hiatus from our frosty winters.

My dream of becoming an author began to come true when I attended my first SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in 2007. I was thrilled when my picture book submission was nominated for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award.

My first published book is, Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food and Other Life Lessons. It is a humorous chapter book about an eight-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome. Connor struggles to make his way through a typical school day and in his attempt to be as cool as everyone else, he leaves a hilarious trail of destruction. But, by the end of the day, and despite many miscommunications and misunderstandings, Connor realizes that he is exactly as cool as he is supposed to be.

Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food and Other Life Lessons, received a 2013 Gold Mom's Choice Award, the 2013 Silver Moonbeam Award for Best First Book: Chapter Book, a 2013 Silver Benjamin Franklin Award and a PPN Book Show Merit Award.  

In June 2013, I completed The Manitoba Writers' Guild, Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program and had the pleasure of working with mentor, Carolyn Gray on Forever Julia.

Forever Julia launched in 2015 and is a humorous, yet at times dark, contemporary novel about a sixteen-year-old girl struggling to accept the death of her father. She falls for a wealthy and controlling boy who leads her to betray her friends and sacrifice her integrity. Ultimately, she alone must decide what lines cannot be crossed. It is full of romance, heart-break, and dangerous secrets. 

Forever Julia received the Bronze Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Mature Issues, was listed as a Best Book in the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Fall 2015 list, and has been included in the 49th Shelf's Anti-Bullying Booklist in support Canada's Bullying Awareness Week.

2016 was a very exciting year. I was nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Promising New Writer and Forever Julia won The McNally Robinson Books for Young People Awards - Older Category. 

Family of Spies, my third book, is a fast-paced middle grade full of mystery, espionage, and humor. When cousins, Ford, Ellie, and Gavin, discover their late great-grandfather was a rogue World War 2 spymaster, they must outrun MI6 and the CIA through the streets of Paris, relying on their wits and Ford’s newfound clairvoyant skills to unlock the past. Great-Grandad hid something important to the war effort and these agencies want it back!

Family of Spies 

launches 

April 29, 2018 at 2:00 

McNally Robinson Booksellers 

I have been a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for thirteen years and have attended numerous conferences and workshops in Canada, The United States, and England to work on craft and to network with other writers, agents, publishers, librarians, and teachers.

If you would like me to visit your classroom, please send an email to: jodi@thecarmichaels.ca. 

You can also check out the School Visits tab of my website to see teacher and school specialist's comments.