The Simple Scoop
Julie Honan Johnston is a children's picture book author and writer of other whimsies. Her debut picture book, If You Lived in the Sea, Who Would You Be? is scheduled for release in Spring of 2025 with Web of Life Books. Julie is a member of SCBWI and Inked Voices and her writing can be found in Slackjaw, Red Tricycle, The Dirigible Balloon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two children.
Welcome! My journey as a writer started in the Wild Midwest (Kansas City!) where I was the middle child in a family of 7. I spent lots of time catching lightning bugs, jumping on trampolines, making snow angels, doing belly flops, and getting chased by garden gnomes. (Ok, ok...no garden gnomes.) I wrote my first poem, Ziggy the Inchworm, at age 9 in rhyme, and I still love to rhyme (but not all the time).
After earning a degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder, I headed to the bakery of the Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming (naturally). There, I rolled out breadsticks and donuts in the wee hours of the morning in order to explore the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone at all other hours.
As my love of exploration grew, I found work as a camp counselor in New Hampshire, an au pair in Mallorca, Spain, a concierge at a hostel in Greece, a children's ski instructor in Vail, a waitress in Taos, a receptionist at the Timber Line Lodge on Mt. Hood, an English teacher in San Diego, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, and as an outdoor education instructor for the Catalina Environmental Leadership Program.
I’ve also been an ice cream scooper, a coin book producer, a street canvasser, a phone answerer, a seller of real estate and lotus-shaped lamp shades, a postpartum care provider, a travel writer...and the list goes on. For me, becoming a writer has involved many different types of work! I love all kinds of writing, but I am especially fond of children's picture books for their playful, poetic, simple-yet-profound nature.
I'm currently settled in the Wild West (Berkeley!) with my husband and two kids. When we're not playing try-and-make-me-laugh around the dinner table, you might find us hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, or exploring this Wild Planet we call home.