About Me

 Barbara McGrath has written more than twenty books for children, including The M&M's Brand Counting Book, a Learning Magazine “Teachers Choice Award” winner , an ABA “Pick of the List,” and a Publishers Weekly best seller; The Little Green Witch, a Storytelling World Award Honor title; and The Cheerios Counting Book (Scholastic), a Publishers Weekly bestseller. Her book The Storm is a compilation of art and writing created by students of Biloxi, Mississippi, effected by Hurricane Katrina. 

Barbara was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her parents still live. She has two brothers, Al and John, who did a good job teasing her while they were growing up. When she was little, her grandfather, Pa, lived with her family. Pa taught the neighborhood children how to count in Italian. It was Pa who inspired Barbara’s love of children, animals, and gardening. 

Summers were spent on Cape Cod where the ocean became an important part of her life. Today her hobbies include surfcasting and scuba diving with her daughter, worrying about her son driving a Jeep that needs “work,” and reading. Barbara believes she has the largest collection of “sea-pottery” (not to be confused with “sea glass”) on the East Coast. 

Barbara graduated from Lasell College with a degree in early childhood education. After college Barbara opened a preschool, where she taught four-and-five-year-old students for sixteen years. Her educational philosophy was to make learning fun and interesting. She developed many hands-on art and science projects and created fun ways to teach and learn letters and numbers. 

While teaching, Barbara also freelanced as a writer for local newspapers. Her love for writing, children, and making learning fun was the inspiration for her first children’s book, The M&M’s Brand Counting Book, which has sold over one million copies. Barbara still finds time to write public interest articles for newspapers today. 

Barbara credits her “nerve” to write anything down on a piece of paper to a professor in college who simply told her she could. She has visited schools all over the country speaking to children about writing and math and inspiring them to write their own books. 

Barbara lives west of Boston, Massachusetts.