Joanne Prushing Johnson

Joanne Prushing Johnson learned to read when she was four, which came as a relief to her parents. Reading kept her constantly running mouth quiet. In order to have somewhere for all those words to go, she also began writing stories, poems, songs and plays. Later she became editor of the school paper, wrote articles for local newspapers and was active in music and theatre. She focused her creativity in a different direction in college and graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in occupational therapy. She worked extensively in school settings with boys whose attention and energy didn’t match classroom expectations. Humor, high interest subject matter and fun became ways to motivate her students. She’s carried that into her writing focusing on humorous chapter books and middle grade fiction. Her culturally and racially diverse family provides another source of inspiration. Joanne lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, four boys and oversized dog.