Jeff Schill grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin where he was an avid reader as a child. He was particularly drawn to light, humorous stories that made him laugh. He loved Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Roald Dahl and grew up dreaming of one day winning a ticket to own a chocolate factory. By middle school, Jeff’s love for baseball became so strong that nothing could keep him in the house, and he spent his days on the ballfield. But those stories he loved as a child would never leave him. Years later they would come back as a dream to write his own stories.
When Jeff’s baseball career failed to materialize, he once again turned back to his roots and those stories he read as a child. He began tutoring students, helping them to develop life-long reading and writing skills. He went on to become a high school social studies teacher and most currently runs training programs to help teachers to develop safe and effective classrooms.
He always held the dream of writing stories for children that would resonate like those stories he had read so many years earlier. He began writing stories wherever and whenever he could. If you had been around in those days you would have seen Jeff writing at local diners, coffee shops, book stores, and even in line at the grocery store. He went back to get his MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College graduating in 2012.
Jeff currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife, Candy. He is often asked why he writes books for children and his answer is because he is still a kid himself. He eats peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch and has never met a jelly bean he does not like - except pear, which is given to his nephew. He spins in his chair, loves rolling down hills, is afraid of the dark, and would never eat a vegetable if his wife didn’t make him.
Today you can still find him writing at local diners, coffee shops, bookstores, and occasionally in line at the grocery store.
