Mélanie Watt was born in Trois-Rivières, Québec on August 20th 1975. She currently lives in Montréal, Québec. She works in her studio at home. She did her training at the Université du Québec in Montréal where she attained a College degree in Graphic Design and a B.A. in design. She got involved in illustrating children's books through Michèle Lemieux, her illustration teacher at University. Their assignment was to create a book about colour. She decided to write a story about a chameleon to help explain complementary colours to children. Later, she sent the book project: Leon the Chameleon to Kids Can Press.

Mélanie enjoys most about her work is that she creates new story ideas. The interesting part of being an author as well as an illustrator is that she can approach ideas on two different levels. Sometimes images trigger story ideas and sometimes it's the story ideas that trigger images. She is really drawn to animals and they inspire her a lot when it comes to creating. Inspiration comes to her by things around her and experiences she had as a child. She feels that the opportunity to create with words and images is wonderful. It allows her to communicate ideas in a very precise way. She admits that that there's a little bit of her personality in each of her characters. The timid side of Leon the Chameleon, the insecurities of Scaredy Squirrel for example. But the character that resembles her the most is probably Augustine. Augustine's story is based on her experiences of moving as a child.

Mélanie's pet is a little green parrot named Kiwi. Her hobbies include, playing the piano and the guitar. She has a growing collection of favourite books that include: Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and Olivia by Ian Falconer to name a few. She loves animated movies like A Bug's Life, Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Her favourite animals are are iguanas, fireflies, parrots, ducks, possums and crabs. As a child, she had fun dressing up and she also enjoyed camping with her family.

Mélanie's advise to kids: "It's amazing what you can accomplish when you focus on things you love to do!"

Web site: Author: www.scaredysquirrel.com
Publisher: www.kidscanpress.com

How to Contact: Mail: 10797 Rue Berri, Montréal, QC H3L 2H3