Imaginary Garden, The

Andrew Larsen is from Toronto, ON M5R 3B2

Andrew Larsen lives in a neighborhood in Toronto that has tall trees, old houses and lots of stories. He lives with his wife, Esther, and their two children. Sometimes Andrew goes looking for stories and sometimes stories find him.

Andrew was born in Montreal. From an early age he dreamed of being a hockey player. In elementary school he began writing stories, often about hockey. The stories tended to involve some variation on the theme of Andrew scoring the game-winning goal in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. Alas, Andrew eventually hung up his skates, but he never stopped writing.

Once he started a family, Andrew discovered his true calling: he became a stay-at-home dad and started writing stories for and about his children. “As the world unfolds before their eyes it feels as though I’m seeing it for the first time, too,” he explains.

Andrew spends his days cooking, cleaning, writing and dreaming. He often visits schools and libraries where he encourages children to write their own stories. “We all have stories to tell,” he says. “And each of us has our own way of telling them.”

This title is available in French, Le jardin imaginaire de grand-papa.