About the Creator

Margaret J. McMaster

Margaret is a multimedia creator who writes novels, paints, produces vlogs for A Sweet Enough Life, and adorns journals with her beautiful artwork. This is what she calls retirement after working in education, business, and library services. She resides in a Southwestern Ontario town on the shores of Lake Erie.

Margaret J. McMaster published her first book of middle-grade fiction, Carried Away on Licorice Days, in 2008. It was nominated for three literary awards: the Canadian Library Association's 2009 Book of the Year for Children Award, the 2010/2011 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award, and the 2011 Rocky Mountain Book Award.

In 2009 she started writing the Babysitter Out of Control! series. These amusing, fast-paced adventures include: Babysitter Out of Control!, Looking for Love on Mongo Tongo, The Improbable Party on Purple Plum Lane, What Happened in July (selected for Best Books for Kids & Teens - Spring 2013), The Sinking of the Wiley Bean, and, The Queen of Second Chances. The Complete Babysitter Out of Control! Series, published in 2015, was long-listed for the 2016 Silver Birch Award, selected for Best Books for Kids & Teens - Fall 2015, and the Gold Medal Winner in the 2015 Moonbeam Children's Book Award Early Reader/1st Chapter Books category.

McMaster is a past contributor to the Canadian Children's Annual and her creative non-fiction piece, After All These Years, was shortlisted for the 2006 CBC Literary Award.

So Much Potential, a novel set in the Lake Erie fishing industry, was published in 2013. It was a Starred * Selection in Best Books for Kids & Teens - Spring 2014.

The first book in her Phoebe Sproule series, 8 Days in DUMBO, was named one of *The Year’s Best* by Resource Links and won an Honorable Mention in the 2019/2020 Reader Views Literary Awards. The sequel, The Haunting of Cedar Hill Plantation, won the Bronze Medal in the 2020/2021 Reader Views Literary Awards.

In 2022 she published a collection of adult short fiction called, The Exact Likeness of Living Persons. It won a Silver Medal in the 2022/2023 Reader Views Literary Awards.

Awards

SILVER MEDAL * 2022/2023 * Reader Views Literary Awards

Publication: The Exact Likeness of Living Persons

Year: 2022/2023

BRONZE MEDAL WINNER * 2020/2021 * Reader Views Literary Awards

Publication: The Haunting of Cedar Hill Plantation (A Phoebe Sproule Novel)

Year: 2020/2021

Honorable Mention * 2019/2020 * Reader Views Literary Awards

Publication: 8 Days in DUMBO (A Phoebe Sproule Novel)

Year: 2019/2020

A Best Books for Kids & Teens *Starred* Selection

Publication: So Much Potential

Year: Spring 2014

GOLD MEDAL * 2015 * Moonbeam Children's Book Award -
EARLY READER / 1ST CHAPTER BOOKS category

Long-listed for the 2016 Silver Birch Award

Selected for the Fall 2015 Edition of Best Books for Kids & Teens

Publication: The Complete Babysitter Out of Control! Series

Year: 2015

Short-listed * 2011 * Rocky Mountain Book Award

Publication: Carried Away on Licorice Days

Year: 2011

Short-listed * 2010/2011 * Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award

Publication: Carried Away on Licorice Days

Year: 2010/2011

Long-listed for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award

Publication: Carried Away on Licorice Days

Year: 2009

Publications

The Exact Likeness of Living Persons