Donna L. Hurst

I was born and raised in upstate New York. I married and raised my two boys while working at the research labs at Kodak. I managed to put aside my "first love" of art, for chemistry (what was I thinking!). Eventually, the family moved to Ohio for my husband's job and at that point I decided to return to school and earn an art degree. This lead to a successful and happy career as a designer, and later, as an art director in the home fashion industry.

I am now semi-retired and spending my time on a small decorative painting business. However, my happiest times are spent teaching art and crafts to young children. Allison, my co-author, is the mom of four of those children. She and her family have become very important to me. When she approached me with an idea for a children's book, I readily embraced it. The hand-cut paper illustrations in The Green Alphabet, are my first attempt at book illustration, and I loved it! The pictures and text evolved over 4 years, and finally came together as a book that expresses our heartfelt interest in nuturing "green" kids. We are having a wonderful time reading the book and doing recycle crafts at bookstores, libraries and community centers.

I'm not sure where it will go from here, but we are ready for the adventure.