About Sylvia Waugh

Sylvia Waugh (sounds like "cough") was born in Gateshead, County Durham -there was no Tyne & Wear till 1974- in Northern England in 1935. Having worked full-time as a grammar teacher for seventeen years, Waugh began her writing career in her late forties, after her three children were grown. In 1993, she published her first book, The Mennyms, which eventually evolved into an entire series. Ms. Waugh said in an "Entertainment Weekly," interview with Lois Alter Mark, "I created the Mennyms because the world is too cynical, too lacking in magic. People with dreams are an endangered species, and I wanted to write for them. I don't want the nastiness-the stuff I see on TV." Since completing her "Mennyms" books, Waugh has continued her focus, as "Horn Book" contributor Martha V. Parravano noted, on "what it means to be human by exploring the lives of those who are not."