Official Biography

Lola M. Schaefer is an author of children’s books and a national writing consultant. She travels across the country sharing her love of reading and writing in schools, at conferences, and at workshops. For the past twenty years she has informed and inspired teachers and students on the craft of writing.
Lola is the author of more than 250 books for children including picture books, easy readers, novelty books, classroom books and informational texts. One of her first critically recognized picture books, This is the Sunflower, was published by Greenwillow Books in 2000. Since then, Lola has published five more books with Greenwillow Books (HPC), including the ALA Notable Children’s Book in the LA Pick, Pull, Snap! Where Once a Flower Bloomed (2003) and An Island Grows (2006), which is a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book.
Her book Frankie Stein, published by Marshall Cavendish in 2007, was awarded the Children’s Choice Book Award for Kindergarten through Grade 2 in New York City on May 13, 2008. Arrowhawk, published by Henry Holt and Company (2004), was selected NSTA’s Outstanding Trade Books for Children, received three different Zena Sutherland Awards for Literature, as well as several state book awards including the Missouri Show Me Award. Her I Can Read (HPC) Loose Tooth was honored in 2007 with The Garden State Book Award for Easy Reader. Currently she is writing and publishing more books in the I Can Read series about a kitten named Mittens for the youngest reader.
As an educational consultant, Lola has worked in dozens of schools across the country. She shares effective classroom strategies on writing workshop, the craft of writing, and genre structures. Lola offers demonstration lessons, as well as general presentations on craft mini-lessons and the art of writing. She is the author of twelve Scholastic Teaching Resources books that focus on strategies to improve student writing.
Lola was a classroom teacher in grades K-7 for eighteen years, as well as a graduate-level college instructor on the writing process in the elementary classroom. She received her B.A. in Education from Indiana University, and later her Master’s in Education. She is a member of the International Reading Association and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Lola lives with her husband Ted in the mountains of north Georgia.