It all began in a small Prince Edward Island fishing village...

Well technically that is true. I was born on Prince Edward Island.

However, it really started once I became a teacher. According to what I was seeing with my students (Grades 2 through 4) as well as what I was hearing from colleagues and parents alike, it appeared as though some reading stages were missing 'stepping stone' books. For the children who loved to read and wanted a more challenging story there was typically a shortage of books with advanced vocabulary and grammar that still used images as a means of telling the story.

I also noticed that quite a number of the children who expressed an interest in advancing their reading would revert back to 'easier' picture based books. As I worked with some of my students to better understand why they reverted to easier books, these were the top three answers:

• had a tougher time working out the meaning of some words without pictures
• harder to understand the overall story without pictures
• much more difficult to finish the book (this results in a sense of failure)

It appeared to me that there may be an opportunity to make this learning stage of an independent reader easier and more fun but I was not sure what I could do about it. One day I talked to my husband about this and after hours of listening to me recount everything I had observed and learned from others he said "Why don't you try writing one". As a teacher I am always encouraging my students to do things that are outside their 'comfort zones' and writing a children's book was surely outside of mine. So try I did and that was the day 'Louie the Lobster' was born.