Federation of BC Writers - Off the Page Program

Norma Charles was born in Ste. Boniface, Manitoba. As a young child, she moved with her family to Maillardville, British Columbia where she attended school, then UBC where she graduated with a Bachelor of Education in 1961.

After teaching high school for a number of years, she "retired" to be home with her four children, two boys and two girls. It was at this time that she began to write and she published several short stories and articles as well as two picture books, including the best seller, See You Later, Alligator (Scholastic). When her youngest child was in primary school she returned to teaching and studying, and became a teacher/librarian in Vancouver, a position which she held for many years, and has recently left to enable her to write full time.

She has taught Creative Writing at UBC and has done many workshops and readings in schools and libraries locally, across Canada and in the USA, where she was a feature author at the Florida Suncoast Writers’ Conference 2004. She has also done two Canadian Children’s Book Centre-sponsored tours in New Brunswick and Ontario.

Besides picture books, she has had fourteen novels for children published including Runaway (Coteau), Sophie Sea to Sea (Beach Holme) winner of the British Columbia Year 2000 Book Award, and The Accomplice (Raincoast), nominated for the Sheila Egoff award.

Her other books include Criss Cross, Double Cross, a sequel to Sophie Sea to Sea which continues Sophie alias Star Girl’s adventures, Fuzzy Wuzzy and All the Way to Mexico, a hilarious tale about a newly blended family’s honeymoon car trip to Mexico and winner of the Chocolate Lily award in 2005. Sophie's Friend in Need is a camping story set on Gambier Island where Sophie’s buddy is a strange and unfriendly Jewish refugee. Just released, Boxcar Kid is about the first wave of French Canadians that arrived on the west coast to work in the sawmills in 1909, and found their homes weren’t ready so some families had to live in a boxcar. Norma's new novel, The Girl in the Backseat, is about a girl who tries to escape from a repressive religious community by becoming a stowaway in a Mini bound for Winnipeg.

Norma enjoys doing author visits with children in schools and libraries where she shares her stories and sheds some light on the whole mystery of how books are actually made, right from the initial germ of an idea to the finished product, and celebrating time. She is a member of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers), and CWILL BC (Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC), Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, The Federation of BC Writers, The Writers Union of Canada and is on the board of the BC Book Prizes Society.

Books

Chasing a Star. Vancouver: Ronsdale, 2009. ISBN 978-1-55380-077-4.

The Girl in the Backseat. Vancouver: Ronsdale, 2008. ISBN 1-55380-056-7.

Boxcar Kid. Toronto: Dundurn, 2007. ISBN 978-1-55002-755-6.

Sophie's Friend in Need. Vancouver: Beach Holme, 2004. ISBN 0-88878-449-X.

All The Way to Mexico. Vancouver: Raincoast, 2003. ISBN, 1-55192-598-2.

Fuzzy Wuzzy. Regina: Coteau, 2002. ISBN 0-9730831-2-3.

Criss Cross, Double Cross. Vancouver: Beach Holme, 2002. ISBN 0-88878-431-7.

The Accomplice. Vancouver: Raincoast, 2001. ISBN 1-55192-430-7.

Runaway. Regina: Coteau, 1999. ISBN 1-55050-143-7.

Sophie Sea to Sea. Vancouver: Beach Holme, 1999. ISBN 0-88878-404-X.

Dolphin Alert!. Toronto: Nelson, 1998. ISBN 0-17-607441-4.

Darlene's Shadow. Toronto: General, 1991. ISBN 0-7736-7295-8.

See You Later, Alligator. Toronto: Scholastic, 1991. ISBN 0-590-73670-1.

A Bientot, Croco!. Toronto: Scholastic, 1991. ISBN 0-590-73671-X.

April Fool Heroes. Toronto: Nelson, 1989. ISBN 0-17-602588-X.

Un Poney Embarrassant. St. Lambert: Les Edition Heritage, 1989. ISBN 2-7625-5268-0 .

No Place for a Horse. Toronto: General, 1988. ISBN 0-7172-2296-9.

Amanda Grows Up. Toronto: Scholastic, 1978. Out of print.