SARAH SHEY was raised on a farm in Iowa.  She has three brothers and two sisters.  Her childhood was filled with collies and cats. The family’s horses only took her father seriously. When Shey was little, she liked to boast that she could read John Becker’s Seven Little Rabbits (illustrated by Barbara Cooney), even though she couldn’t. A book of repetition about rabbits trying to visit their friend Toad, it was easy to memorize.  But before long, the Lickteig sisters discovered her ruse.

Shey’s writing began with letters. She had correspondents from almost every letter of the alphabet, including "Loucille" and Howard, her great aunt and uncle who lived in
Atlantic, Iowa, near the
Atlantic Ocean.  Her father’s
preferred way of introducing his
youngest was saying: "And this is
our youngest Sarah,                
she’s a great letter writer."                     
                                                       
When Shey is not spearheading
search-and-rescue missions for
errant toys or cutting out paper
soldiers, she is at work on a                             
nonfiction narrative.  She has                            Sarah Shey
written for the New York Times,
Time Out New York Kids,  Time Out New York,  the Forward, the Philadelphia Inquirer, This Old House, the Des Moines Register, and The Iowan, the Iowa Review's Daily Palette, the New Yinzer, among others.  Shey has contributed essays to Woman’s Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives (Seal Press, 2006) and Cat Women: Female Writers on their Feline Friends (Seal Press, 2007).  An essay on traveling with her son has been published in the anthology How to fit a Car Seat on a Camel and Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids (Seal Press, 2008).  An essay is forthcoming in the anthology The Cassoulet Saved Our Marriage: True Tales of Food, Family and How We Learn to Eat (Roost Books, Fall 2012). Shey earned degrees from both Columbia University and Northwestern University.  Her son has been her most inspiring and exhausting teacher.

The author never thought she would write children’s books set in Iowa—she had gone to graduate  school for nonfiction writing—but after her son was born on the East Coast, she longed to read him books about rural Iowa.  Each book took about a year from start to finish; the second one took longer because of the illustrator’s school schedule.

Black cats make appearances in both of Shey’s children’s books.  Can you find them?  Little Black Cat is the family’s third or fourth most important family member, depending on if you ask Shey’s son.

The sky, which is such an amazing aspect of Iowa, is captured by both of the illustrators.  One of the author's friend who grew up in Sumner, Iowa and who lives in New York, commented about the stars on the last page of Blue Lake Days: "It’s so great they’re so huge, because when you go back, that’s how it is."
"After a quick read of her work, I felt an odd sense of warmth.  The second time I realized why:  Shey had taken me home in only 20 sentences.  They were plain and elementary but carefully crafted.  Like well-known poets, Shey uses her art form to get the most out of each word."
—DENNY WALLER, Southwest Washington Family (November 2006)
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