About Catherine Matthias
I was an outdoor child – biking, swimming, endless nights of tag, hide-and-seek, and touch football. My book reading occurred at night, snuggled in bed, the light on past midnight, telling myself, “Just one more chapter.”
My newest book, When the Sky Turned to Dust, published in 2025, is a middle grade, historical fiction novel of courage, of the sacrifices families make, and the support neighbors give neighbors. It is about one family meeting the challenges and obligations of life on the prairie.
In 2021, Square One Publishers, NY, released my adult nonfiction, The Word Gobblers – a handbook for parents (and teachers) working with children struggling to read. If remedial instruction aimed at dyslexia is not helping your child progress, the problem may be Irlen Syndrome, which effects 1 in 6 people worldwide.
My six earliest books are published in English and Spanish by Children’s Press, now an imprint of Scholastic. The four fiction titles are part of their Rookie Reader series: Too Many Balloons, I Love Cats, Over-Under, and Out the Door. The two nonfiction titles: I Can Be a Police Officer and I Can Be a Computer Operator were included in their career series.
I live in rural Joseph, Oregon, near the base of the beautiful Wallowa Mountains with my husband, Stewart Jones, a snuggly gray tabby named Mica, and a shy black cat named Jade.