Short Bio

Emma Bland Smith is a librarian and the award-winning author of many books for children. Her latest include The Fabulous Fannie Farmer, Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards, How Science Saved the Eiffel Tower, and The Gardener of Alcatraz, which is a finalist for the California Young Reader Medal. Emma lives in an old creaky house in San Francisco with her family, pets, and too many cookbooks and coffee mugs. Visit her at www.emmabsmith.com.

She is represented by Essie White of Storm Literary Agency.

Contact her at emmasmithsf [at] yahoo.com.

*Interested in having me visit your school (virtually or in person)? Contact me for pricing and other details.*

Longer (and More Exciting!) Bio

I am a mom, librarian, and writer living in my hometown of San Francisco. My husband, Alex, and I have two kids, Everett (19) and Cate (16). Here we are picking apples (one of my favorite activities!):

I was born in Scotland, grew up in San Francisco, and have lived in New York, Santa Barbara, and Paris. When I was in the fourth grade, my family moved to a tiny village in the French Alps for a year. I learned to speak French there! Now I’m back home in San Francisco, living a block away from my childhood house.

I went to college at the University of California at Davis, where I studied French. After that I earned a master’s degree in French literature from UC Santa Barbara, studied abroad in Toulouse, France, spent a year teaching English in Paris, then worked in New York for four years before returning home to California.

My first picture book, Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West, was published by Little Bigfoot Books in 2016. Journey was featured on NPR and the Huffington Post and is the winner of Bank Street College’s Cook Prize and Northland College’s SONWA award, as well as a finalist for SCBWI’s Crystal Kite award and for the Washington State Book Awards.

My other books include the Maddy McGuire, CEO chapter books (2018), To Live on an Island (2019), the Gavin McNally’s Year Off chapter books (2019), The Pig War: How a Porcine Tragedy Taught England and America to Share (2020), Odin: Dog Hero of the Fires (2020), and Claude: The True Story of a White Alligator (2020).

In 2022 I welcomed three more picture book biographies: The Gardener of Alcatraz: A True Story, Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings, and How Science Saved the Eiffel Tower.

The Fabulous Fannie Farmer: Kitchen Scientist and America’s Cook came out in January 2024.

(See more on the Books page.)

Formerly a French teacher and magazine editor, today I work part-time as a public librarian and fill the rest of my days walking our dog, failing to help with high school math homework, protecting my lettuce from the slugs, watching British murder mysteries, and organizing the books in my Little Free Library. And reading.

Let’s talk favorite books!

Some of my favorite picture books, and ones that contributed to me becoming an author: Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett; A Good Day, by Kevin Henkes; Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey; Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen; and All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon.

Books I loved as a child and teen, that I read many times over, include the Little House and Anne of Green Gables series, the Gerald Durrell Corfu memoirs (My Family and Other Animals), the All Creatures Great and Small novels, A Room with a View, Cress Delahanty by Jessamyn West, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Carry on Mr. Bowditch. I also loved Willa Cather, Herman Wouk, Jane Austen, and Rumor Godden. On a less literary note, I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure books, anything by Enid Blyton, and the Tintin and Asterix comics!

I am represented by Storm Literary Agency. Contact me directly at emmasmithsf [at] yahoo.com.

Some Random Facts

  • My kids are great artists! My son drew the redwood tree on my home page, as well as the bird in the header. My daughter drew the tea cup at the bottom of the site.
  • We have a big yellow dog named Piper who likes to run on the beach (and who appears on the cover of one of my books!). We also have a cat named Tim. Several readers have told me that it’s high time I write a book about a cat.
  • I’m on a mission to perfect a homemade pie crust. My family supports this mission.
  • I’ve known my husband since preschool.
  • The best thing about writing books is getting to visit lots of cool places for research, like Alcatraz.
  • Favorite smells: baking bread, sweet peas in the garden, pine trees in the Sierras, a fire in the fireplace.
  • Those in my inner circle know that I believe with every fiber of my being that fall is the best season. I suppose that I love fall most of all, as they say.
  • You know when the Christmas decorations come out in October September, and people get all outraged? I so love it. Bring it on.
  • I like old houses, foggy weather, climbing roses, baking chocolate chips cookies (no raisins!), tea parties using my grandmother’s antique tea cups, getting packages, going to the pumpkin patch on warm fall afternoons, and making a bûche de Noel with my kids every Christmas Eve.
  • I’ve learned that family and good friends are the most valuable things in the world. Also, strong coffee. (Luckily, I have all three.)