A Visit with Children's Author

   Andrea Murphy

Read to Your Children. 

A Lap is a Terrible Thing to Waste.

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About Me

 

I was born in Beverly, Massachusetts and grew up a few blocks east of the Atlantic Ocean. My father was a lawyer, and his office was in the front of our house. My mother and father were pretty much always home, which was nice when you wanted to go to the beach on a hot, summer day.

We spent a lot of time at the beach or roaming around Boston. Almost every weekend we drove up to our vacation place in Maine. There was no house, but there was a chicken coop. My mother and father turned that chicken coop into a palace. Well, not exactly a palace. It was more like a bunk room. We called it the cook shack. You can see my mom and dad dancing in the cook shack. We sure did have a great time in that chicken coop.

 

 

Today I live in an old brick house overlooking New Hampshire's Lamprey River. At one time my entire family could be found living under its roof. My mom and dad and my five brothers and sisters -- Jimmy, Eileen, Natty, Stephie and Arthur -- all called it home. 

 

We had so much fun in this house. We especially loved playing in the big red barn.  Arthur played with his dog, Billy. Stephie collected eggs from her chickens. Natty rode Bella, her little white pony. Eileen fed the calves.  Jimmy and I milked Clurichaun and Pookha, our Guernsey dairy cows. 

 

 

That's me milking Clurichaun. I think it's pretty cool that I grew up to write a book about dairy cows.  Writing Out and About at the Dairy Farm brought back lots of great memories.

With so many brothers and sisters and all their friends, our house was always filled with people. My best friend was Lynne. In fact, we're STILL great friends! Lynne says we've been friends since diaper days, and she's right. Our moms were friends when they were girls. So were our grandmothers. Here's an old picture of Lynne and me. I'm the one who took her glasses off for the picture. The teens on the steps are Lynne's mom and my mom. They had just graduated high school.  Do you think we look like our mothers?  

 

Even though I'm not a kid anymore, I still hang out in the barn. You see, my sisters and I turned it into a school almost 30 years ago. My old barn is now home to the Hogarth Country Day School. The only animal you might find is Mary Murphy, my Rat Terrier dog. You'll still find tons of kids! Teaching in a barn sure is fun.

 

 

When I'm not teaching preschool and kindergarten or writing my books, I like to spend time with the people I love most in the world -- my nieces and nephews. Some of them are older, like Annie, Rachel, Alex, James, Margaret Jane, Thomas, Daniel, Bitsy and Margaret Anne. John and Arthur are still little guys. One thing is for sure. They all make me smile.

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