Joan Jarvis Ellison

Forty years ago Joan Jarvis Ellison and her family traded life in the big city for life on a farm and adventures in animal husbandry, small scale farming and fiber artistry. Joan documented those adventures in six books - two nonfiction – Shepherdess: Notes from the Field, (published by Purdue University Press), which won a Minnesota Book Award in 1996, and From Sheep to Shawl: stories and patterns for fiber lovers, (published by Wandering Minstrel Press), Tangled Web: a novel, and three children’s nonfiction picture books: How to Paint a Sheep which includes complete directions for painting a sheep – all you need is a spray bottle of Kool Aid™ and a sheep; The Lamb in the Middle is Mine illustrated by Amber Ellison Walker; My Sheep Can Dance illustrated by Linda Christensen. “One of the best parts about writing a picture book,” says Ellison, “is the wonderful creativity that the illustrators bring to the story.” Her most recent picture book When You Pitch a Tent in the Snow, illustrated by Laurel Ellison Dantas, does not include any sheep.

 The children’s picture books which were originally written for her grandsons, led her to write The Year (I donated my Mom to the Library). The Year is a fictional story of how a small town builds a library. It was written for third and fourth grade readers.

 Ellison has also written about diversity in the Pelican Rapids community in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and three books: The Faces of Change (published by Otter Tail County Historical Society) with photographs by Mel Zierke, Many Cultures, One Community: a book of stories and recipes (co-written by Sally Williams and published by Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library), and Refuge, another book about the refugee experience, co-written with Dianne Kimm.

All of these books with the exception of Shepherdess: notes from the field, are available from Joan. Please contact her at joan.jarvis.ellison@gmail.com.

This blog will become a compilation of her writings in the recent past and the future.