Elephant Joan and The Cell Phone

Elizabeth V. Roach was born in Pittsburgh, PA. A member of Maryknoll Sisters, a Roman Catholic Religious Order of missionaries who serve the poor in many nations, she has served in Bolivia, Peru, Panama and the United States. She first wrote about children she met while serving as a medical technologist at a small hospital in the northeastern jungles of Bolivia. Her first book, If I am Found Worthy, was a memoir about a priest who gave his life to protect children. A graduate of Santa Maria University in Arequipa, Peru, she taught zoology at the Instituto Nacional Agropecuario #19, at 12,000 feet above sea level in Azangaro, a small town in the Peruvian Andes. Her students were shepherds and potato farmers who entered secondary school in their late teens. Her experiences with Peruvian children led to a middle grade novel, Secret Melody, a story of child shepherds. Street children in the coastal desert of Peru inspired her to tell their stories in magazines and newspapers. Today, she writes from Maryknoll, NY. Her latest work is a full color picture book, ELEPHANT JOAN AND THE CELL PHONE, for two to eight-year-olds. It is illustrated by Peggy Dawson, also a Maryknoll Sister. She likes to receive comments from children who read her books.