About the Author
© 2019 Jen Dean Photography
Libby Moore, Author
While Libby Moore spent her childhood roaming the meadows and forests of northeast Ohio, her heart and spirit grew up canoeing and camping in the north woods of Ontario. She earned a Master of Forestry degree from Yale University, where she also met her husband. She went to work as a forest ecologist in midcoast Maine, and they settled on an old saltwater farm, where they raised three children. Every winter they watched birds from the kitchen window for Cornell University’s Project FeederWatch. The idea for The River of Birds came to Libby in a dream, just like the dream of the story’s protagonist. Libby was a Reiki practitioner and worked with life-force energy to offer healing and support to her clients. Her work has been published in the Christian Science Monitor. The River of Birds is her first book.
Watch a video Q&A with Libby about writing and publishing The River of Birds.
“I had not ever thought of myself as writing children’s picture books at all. So at first I thought, no, this isn’t me. And then I thought, well, why not? Why not give it a try?”
© 2019 Gregory Rec
Michael Boardman, Illustrator
Michael Boardman is a wildlife artist based in North Yarmouth, Maine, and member of the Maine Master Naturalist Program. Michael is known for his watercolor bird portraits and nature journal sketches. He can often be found watching migratory birds, sketchbook in hand. Numerous artist residencies have allowed him to connect art and science, including Acadia National Park, Hog Island Audubon Camp, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and most recently, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska in June of 2019.
© 2016 Fitzgerald Photography
Mary E. Plouffe, PhD
Mary E. Plouffe, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and author. Her memoir, I Know It in My Heart: Walking through Grief with a Child, details her own experience with child and adult grief after her sister passed away, leaving her three-year-old daughter without her mother. The River of Birds includes a guide put together by Mary (also available on the Resources for Adults page of this site) that provides practical resources for adults who are supporting grieving children. Mary has three grown children, and lives with her husband in Cumberland, Maine.
