Barbara Stretton
Author & Illustrator
of the Tori Trotter series

Barbara Stretton was an English teacher and librarian in elementary, junior high and high school for 28 years. During this time she also wrote three young adult novels, A Deeper Season (Fawcett), You Never Lose (Knopf), and The Truth of the Matter (Knopf) and a nonfiction book for business called The BLR Handbook of Practical Time Management Techniques (Business and Legal Reports). Since retiring from teaching in 2000, Barbara has written the first of a series about a cat detective called The Case of the Tiberian Tiger: A Tori Trotter Mystery. This book is for readers 8-12 and cat lovers of all ages.

Barbara also writes teacher's guides for Listening Library, the children's audiobook division of Random House. This involves reading children's books for all ages and developing activities across the curriculum to draw youngsters into reading and listening. She is also an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature, teaching adults all over the country and Canada how to write for children.