barbara rennerBarbara has worn many hats in her lifetime. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with an English major and Speech minor. After many years of teaching, she earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University. She also has a Reading Endorsement from ASU. Teaching is her passion, and she has taught everything from grammar to business management to financial services. She is currently teaching a beginning computer software class to community college students.

Writing has always been an activity that Barbara has enthusiastically pursued. She has written numerous articles for business education newsletters and journals, as well as edited and written for a variety of newsletters. Currently she is writing picture books for children ages 2-8. Her fiction books contain interesting facts and lessons to ponder.  She believes that learning begins at an early age – and never ends.

Barbara calls Arizona her home. In the summer, Barbara and her husband live in Minnesota to escape the desert heat and enjoy a different landscape of lakes and cornfields. One of their summertime hobbies is fishing and enjoying the land of 10,000 lakes. Minnesota’s state bird is the Common Loon, and they have more Loons than any other state in the continental United States. Barbara became fascinated by the Loons’ beautiful black and white plumage and haunting calls as they fly from lake to lake. Barbara wanted to share information about these unique aquatic birds with children, so that is why she created Lonnie the Loon and wrote a series of four picture books

Find Barbara’s books in the YAAR library:
Lonnie the Loon Learns to Fly
Lonnie the Loon Finds His Home
Lonnie the Loon Flies South for the Winter
Lonnie the Loon Learns to Call
Quincy the Quail Leads His Family on an Adventure
Quincy the Quail Saves a Life
Quincy the Quail and the Mysterious Egg