Johnson, Shirley

Shirley Johnson is the author of I Heart Ed Small and the newly published The Music of Mary Frances. As a young girl she discovered the escape hatch that is reading and soon became fascinated with how a good yarn could take her someplace wonderful, and could actually alter her emotions. As the youngest child amongst several cousins in a large family she understood the importance of this talent of manipulation and the importance of escape very well, and knew that she wanted to be a writer. Born and raised in Central IL where people are pragmatic, her parents encouraged her to first get a good e...