Bio
Gillian O’Reilly has been interested in words ever since she ate the dust jacket off the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary when she was 11 months old. Throughout childhood, she continued to be a voracious consumer of books – although reading became her the preferred way of enjoying them.
Gillian's goal in creating non-fiction for children is to intrigue, entertain and inform -- by fashioning facts with lively and engaging writing. She brings the same curiosity to her current projects for young readers (picture books and a middle-grade novel) and an adult book on the history of children's bookselling in Canada.
Gillian has worked in the book business for many years, as an editor of publications about the industry, and later as a freelance writer and editor. In her 20 years as editor of Canadian Children's Book News, she learned from some of the best writers and illustrators in this country. A former board member of the Telling Tales Festival of Stories, she currently sits on the board of the Canadian Children's Book Centre.
