Wendy Orr was born in Canada and spent her childhood across Canada, France and the USA. Wherever she lived, there were always lots of stories, books and pets. Once, when she was on a ferry going to visit her grandparents, Wendy saw a tiny island and wished that she could live there. As soon as she got home, she started writing a story about a girl who runs away from an orphanage to live on a small island. Many years later, when she was a grown-up writer, Wendy remembered the feeling of writing that story, and started writing Nim's Island. Wendy began writing for children after a career as an occupational therapist. She is the author of many award-winning books and lives on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. One day a film producer in Hollywood took Wendy's book Nim's Island out of the library to read to her son. The next day she asked if she could make it into a movie. Wendy said yes! They became good friends, and Wendy had the fun of helping work on the screenplay.