STAFFORD, Liliana 1950-

PERSONAL: Born March 18, 1950, in Sussex, England; married Edward Stafford (a teacher), September 25, 1971; children: Helen, Robert, Hermine, Sophia, Brian, Julia. Education: Attended College Nedlands for two years. Politics: Labour.

ADDRESSES: Home—17 Pilgrim Way, Hamilton Hill, Perth 6163 Western Australia. E-mail—ziliensk@iinet. net.au.

CAREER: Writer. Owner of a small horse-riding business, 1980-90.

AWARDS, HONORS: Notable Book, Children's Book Council, 2001, for Amelia Elicott's Garden.

WRITINGS:

for children

Just Dragon, illustrated by Margaret Power, Cygnet Books (Nedlands, Western Australia), 2000.

Snow Bear, illustrated by Lambert Davis, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

Amelia Elicott's Garden (picture book), illustrated by Stephen Michael King, Margaret Hamilton Books (Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Australia), 2000.

Chiko Book One: Through the Starting Flags (juvenile novel), illustrated by Alena Kennedy, Cygnet Young Fiction (Crawley, Western Australia), 2001.

Chiko Book Two: A Race Is Run (juvenile novel), illustrated by Irene Young, Cygnet Young Fiction (Crawley, Western Australia), 2001.

Digger (novel), 2002.

Grandpa's Gate (picture book), University of Western Australia Press, 2002.

The Stone Elephant, Benchmark Press (West Palm Beach, FL), 2002.

Amelia Elicott's Garden has been published in Taiwan, Korea, and America, as well as in Australia.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Stone Elephant, a picture book; Shar, a novel; Into the Island, a novel set in Ireland.

SIDELIGHTS: Liliana Stafford has lived in Australia most of her adult life. Her young adult novels, Chiko, Book One: Through the Starting Flags and Chiko, Book Two: A Race Is Run, about a young girl and her show pony, "capture completely the joyous essence of riding in the Australian bush," according to a reviewer in the Roleystone Courier. In the first book, young Penny graduates from her comfortable old pony Mustard to Chiko, with whom Penny learns to race and jump in preparation for an important show. In the second book, the relationship between horse and girl must change as Penny soon grows too tall to ride little Chiko. "This is a thrilling bedtime story that will make kids want to leap into their beds, snuggle under their quilts and read another chapter," remarked Leonie Allen in the Brisbane Courier Mail.

The Snow Bear received significant critical attention in the United States. Set in a village in northern Canada, The Snow Bear tells the story of the friendship that grows between Bruun, a little boy, and a female polar bear that wanders into town and is feeding at the town dump. The bear is confined to bear jail until the time when she is judged to be so hungry that she will want to go back to the wilderness area to feed herself. But Bruun secretly feeds the bear, and then, when she won't leave town after being released, leads her out onto the ice, only to be trapped by a winter storm. Throughout that winter, the bear cares for Bruun, teaches him how to survive, and brings him back to town in the spring. Bruun grows up and finds the bear again in her last year of life, and is finally able to return the favor. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews, felt that the story exhibited both "narrative gaps and credibility issues," but Connie Forst, writing in Resource Links, proclaimed The Snow Bear "a book that will definitely tug on some emotions while providing a great read."

Stafford told CA: "Writing for me is now a way of life. I work intermittently throughout the day, taking time out for a walk around the lake with our dog Mitzy, a swim at the beach or a browse through the markets and book shops of Freemantle.

"I began writing in 1988 and was writing for nearly twelve years before I was published. Finally three of my picture books came out in the same year. I didn't plan it that way, it just happened.

"The Snow Bear was written in the summer with the temperature around 36 degrees Celsius. I had been thinking for months about the interaction between humans and the natural world and had written some notes under the heading 'Shelter.' One night I was sitting up late after the children had gone to bed when into my head came a picture of a polar bear that had been caught in a storm. At the same time the words 'The Snow Bear' were there and I knew I had a new picture book.

"I researched polar bears in our local library and read about the bear jail in Churchill, Minnesota, and two weeks later I had my story. A Canadian friend asked me how I could write about polar bears in Canada when I had never been there. I don't have an answer except I worked for ten years with horses and children and understood something of how they relate. The rest is called research.

"When I first started writing I worked in a series of notebooks then on an old computer that took one chapter per disk. Now I have a new laptop computer but I still scribble in notebooks sometimes.

"The most important thing about writing that I am still learning is trusting the story to emerge. Walking helps, and scribbling in a notebook, but sometimes it is just a matter of timing. Some stories take years, others days or weeks. They control the pace. I can only be ready and willing to put in the work.

"Currently I am working on a junior novel set on the west coast of Ireland in the Gaelic speaking area. We visited this area two years ago and I came home with a very thick notebook full of jottings and pieces of a novel. Writing it has allowed me to explore questions of emigration and Irish mythology that have long held my attention. When all the disparate pieces of a story start coming together in a coherent whole is when I become excited. At these times I wouldn'tswap writing for anything else in the world."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Brisbane Courier Mail, September 18, 2001, Leonie Allen, review of Chiko Book One and Chiko Book Two.

Childhood Education, summer, 2002, Amy S. Easter, review of The Snow Bear, p. 240.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2001, review of The Snow Bear, p. 1369.

Resource Links, December, 2001, Connie Forst, review of The Snow Bear, p. 11.

Roleystone Courier Journal, June, 2001, "Local Character—Book Hero."

School Library Journal, January, 2001, Meghan R. Malone, review of Just Dragon, p. 108; December, 2001, Lisa Dennis, review of The Snow Bear, p. 112.*