The author was raised in, and lives in, the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California, where she receives much of her inspiration for the children’s books she writes. The first book in the Penelope Series, “’Penelope the Pea-Popping Pigeon Landed in Our Garden’” tickles the funny bone with a feel-good story about a pigeon and a boy, who each find joy in a vegetable garden at the peak of the summer season. Imagine yourself in a pea patch, on a hot summer day, engulfed by the sounds and smells of a summer garden, and you will find yourself the main character in “’Penelope the Pea-Popping Pigeon Landed in Our Garden.”