Reading is my first love and since my mother wrote for newspapers, writing came naturally to me from travel articles to children's books to women's fiction and for ten years, a humor column in a local newspaper. Now I'm writing for children again with sales in the U.S., Japan, Korea and even a book to be read on a popular children's TV program in Australia.

I've published fifteen childrens books, including a Childrens Choice award winning picture book and an Eppy for the best electronic children's book of 2000, as well as 5 novels, 2 with Ballantine Books and 3 with Harlequin Historicals.

My picture book Bears on Chairs, published by Candlewick Press in August 2009, was published the following year as a toddler board book. Bears in Beds will be published in Fall of 2012, to be followed by Bears in Baths approximately a year later. Bears on Chairs, published in Japanese has been so popular that it is listed as the 9th best picture book of 2011 in Japan. Bears in Beds will be also be published in Japan in Fall of 2012. I'm writing several books (in English) for a Korean publisher for a program meant to help young Korean children enjoy learning English.

Shirley Parenteau
The bears of Bears on Chairs are front and center of this webpage with a bouncy musical background inviting interactivity with child visitors.