Elaine Bunting, Author - MDSOS Kids' Page

Elaine Bunting

I was born in and grew up in Ocean City, Maryland. My mother and brother still live there. My father is deceased. I attended Ocean City Elementary School and Stephen Decatur High School near Berlin. I received a B.S. degree from Madison College (now James Madison University) and a Masters degree from Towson State University. After graduating from Madison, I got a job with Harford County Public Schools as an elementary school librarian and worked in three schools over the course of my career. I retired in July 2001 to be a full time writer.

My hobbies are reading, hiking, and traveling. I have been to various places on the east coast, England, Spain, Germany, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Canada, and Cancun, Mexico. I have also been in a five-week camping trip across the America west, which was a great experience. In 1994, I went to New Zealand for two weeks with some other teachers from across the United States. We stayed with New Zealand families and visited schools and places of interest on the North Island. Some day I'd like to go back and see the family I stayed with and visit the South Island.

I am a "cat person." I have a Maine Coon Cat named Tassie.

I always liked to write, but until I became aware of the need for information for kids about the Maryland counties, I wrote only fiction stories, which I shared with my students. My first writing award came in high school I received an award from the American Legion for an essay about the Maryland counties. I enjoy going to events such as the children's Book Guild Luncheon in Washington and the International Reading Council (SOMIRAC) Conference in Baltimore every year and meeting the authors and illustrators.

One of the books by Elaine Bunting & Patricia D'Amario

I got the idea to write these books because children would come to me in the library and ask for information about the counties. I realized that there is no series of books on the Maryland counties for kids, so for two or three years I pondered writing them myself. Finally, I decided to get started with Harford. After I finished Harford, I started St. Mary's, since that was where Maryland was first settled. I began to realize that it was going to be very difficult to write all the books by myself, so when Pat D'Amario offered to co-author them, I gladly accepted. I stopped working on St. Mary's and we started researching Anne Arundel together. We needed to do a county that was fairly close, since school was in session and we could go there quickly. The two completed manuscripts about Harford and Anne Arundel counties were then sent to Tidewater Publishers for consideration. They accepted the challenge of publishing them, and we now have three books in publication: Counties of Central Maryland, Counties of Northern Maryland,and Counties of Southern Maryland.