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Karleen Bradford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karleen Bradford, (born December 16, 1936) exceeded in writing children's books. In the span of two decades, Karleen has written an impressive tally of 28 books, 22 of which have been published. Bradford has seen her fair share of awards throughout her life. She is the winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Our Choice, 1987/88 for her books THE HAUNTING AT CLIFF HOUSE, THE NINE DAYS QUEEN, THE STONE IN THE MEADOW and winner of the Canadian Library Association 1993 Young Adult Canadian Book Award for her book THERE WILL BE WOLVES.

Although Bradford is best known for her 9 children’s books, ages 9-12, she also has eleven young adult books, two fiction books, one chapter book, and one picture book. Her first book under the title A Year for Growing sold one hundred copies. Bradfords story, Nine Days Queen was translated into multiple languages such as Japanese.

Early Life
Moving away from Canada to Argentina at the age of nine, Karleen Bradford as seen her fair share of the world due to the fact the her family was constantly relocating from England to Germany to Brazil - with occasional stops in her home town of Toronto, Canada. As the years went on, Karleen relocated back to Canada to attend the University of Toronto and graduated with a B.A in English and languages.

She met her husband Jim Bradford. As a result of Jims Foreign Service Officers job they spent the upcoming 34 years of their life travelling to different parts of the world including such places as Colombia, the United States, England, the Philippines, Brazil, Germany, and Puerto Rico. Karleens oldest son was born in her home country of Canada while her daughter was born in Columbia and her youngest son in England. Later in life Karleens husband Jim retired with the Canadian Government and the family moved back to Canada where they settled down in Ontario. Karleen Cannot imagine retiring from writing.

Education
Karleen studied at the University of Toronto and graduated with a B.A in English and languages. Bradford knew that she enjoyed writing but never thought that she could make a career out of it. Karleens fondest memorizes were when she got to read stories to her children and see their faces light up with joy and inspiration. Karleen thought that she should try and write her own stories and see if she could get them published. She was very involved in social work, as she has taught lessons on creative writing and reading in various schools across the world in Canada, the United States, Germany and Taiwan.

Being involved with the internet has opened up opportunities for Bradforf such as the WIER (Writers in Electronic Residence) where she was a writer in residence programs and took part in an all day long activity where writers from all around the world met up via internet live stream.

Inspirations
Karleen gets most of her inspirations for her books through nature and the world around us. Karleen has traveled her whole life as well as lived in seven countries, which have inspired her various books greatly. Karleen believes that people find their best inspiration and ideas through nature and this beautiful world.

Her inspiration for her book THE HAUNTING AT CLIFF HOUSE was one day when her and her kids were on a school break exploring in Wales and saw a dark and scary old house, on top of a cliff with the rain beating down upon it giving her an idea to create that book. Another method of inspiration towards her writing ideas and style were her kids: Donald Bradford, Cathy Bradford and Chris Bradford. Karleen would always write her own books and stories for her own children when they were growing up which gave her the motivation to keep writing and make a career out of it. Aside from nature and her children her favorite authors such as Jean Little, Monica Hughes and Katherine Paterson inspired Karleen. These authors were very important to her ideas for her own stories and made her decide to become an author and potentially become as successful as them. These inspirations are what motivated her to grow to her full writing potential and to grow as a person as well as influence her fans and children to go after their dreams because they are within reach.

Hobbies
Even though Karleens greatest treasure in life is writing, she has many more hobbies in her life expanding throughout all seasons. In the summer months, Karleen enjoys water activities such as swimming, and waterskiing. She also enjoys exploring the wilderness from the safe view of the many trails she encounters during one of her favorite activities of hiking. She can also be spotted on the lush green fairways of a golf course as she as much love and respect for the game. In the winter, Karleen likes to exercise by participating in cross-country skiing. However, her favorite interest other than writing would have to be reading.

Published Books

 * A Year for Growing - 1977 (republished as Wrong Again Robby - 1983)
 * Wish There Were Unicorns - 1983
 * The Stone in the Meadow - 1983
 * The Nine Days Queen - 1986
 * Windward Island - 1989 (winner of the 1990 Max and Greta Ebel Award 1990)
 * There Will be Wolves – 1992 (winner of the 1993 Canadian Library Association) Young
 * Thirteenth Child - 1994
 * Animal Heroes - 1995
 * Write Now! - 1996
 * Shadows on a Sword - 1996
 * More Animal Heroes - 1996
 * Dragonfire - 1997
 * The Haunting at Cliff House - 1998
 * A different Kind of Companion - 1998
 * Lionheart's Scribe - 1999
 * Whisperings of Magic - 2001
 * Dear Canada: With Nothing But Our Courage: The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald, Johnstown, Quebec, 1783 - 2002
 * Angeline - 2004
 * You Can't Rush a Cat - 2004
 * The Scarlet Cross - 2006
 * The Nine Days Queen- 1989

Awards

 * Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Starred Review (2005)
 * Honour Books: Geoffrey Bilson Historical Award (2005)
 * Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (2006)
 * OLA White Pine Award (2006)
 * Violet Downey Award (2005)
 * The Canadian Children’s Centre’s Best Books] (2010) DragonMaster
 * Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice (2005) Angeline
 * [[Canadian Library Association (1993) Young Adult Canadian Book Award, Chosen as One of the 100 Best Canadian Books for Today’s Children and Teens There Will Be Wolves
 * Moose Jaw Young Readers’ Choice Award Dragonfire
 * Canadian KidLit Contest Best Children’s Novel of the Year, (1979) The Other Elizabeth
 * (2005) Saskatchewan Young Reader’s Choice Shining Willow Award You Can’t Rush A Cat
 * Best Book of (2002), Resource Links Magazine Diary of Mary Macdonald
 * Chosen as one of the Outstanding Books of (1996), One of the Years Best Books, Resource Links, (1996) Shadows On A Sword