Barbara J Wulf

I have loved children's literature for a long time. When I was in college, as an elementary education major, I took a class in children's literature. It was so much fun to power-read hundreds of books to dissect the words, the protagonist, the moral, the illustrations, etc. I thought to myself, could I author a children's book.

Fast forward, decades later, here I am with Jeremy the star of The Cellar Spider Who Went Outside. As one of three girls in our family, we grew up in a small town with parents who had a large garden in the backyard. We know gardens can be a lot of work.

I often complained about picking green beans that seemed to have an endless season. With the sun on our backs, we hoed the weeds and dealt with insects like mosquitoes and spiders.

My sisters and I used an old, red wagon to pedal sweet corn about the neighbor. That was one of our first sales and marketing experiences. Our dad told us to give the buyers a "baker's dozen." I learned the meaning of that at a young age, but don't think those deals exist much anymore. Some years the strawberries were great and other years, the chill of a Wisconsin late spring or too much rain in June ruined the berries. Yes, gardeners and weather have a symbiotic relationship.

We ate a lot of fresh produce from garden, but Mom had a canning factory in the kitchen during late summer. Her home canning could rival Green Giant! We dined on her home canned vegetables and fruits all winter and spread red, gooey strawberry jam on our toast. Looking back, the garden was a wonderful learning laboratory in our backyard. I'm so grateful my parents inspired me to garden too, just on a smaller scale!

So, there's my inspiration for my first children's book, The Cellar Spider Who Went Outside. I hope young readers will be motivated to create a small garden to see what grows and have a little self-growth along the way!

Now, in 2026, I have published my second book, The Cellar Spider Who Went Camping! Yes, Jeremy, the cellar spider is having a new outdoor adventure. Once again, I was inspired to write this book as I recall how our family went camping for years during the summer in our pop up camper. Our course, no electricity, no running water, and no bathroom.

Our camping trips took us to Mount Rushmore, The Badlands, Yellowstone National Park, Teddy Roosevelt National Park, Grand Tetons National Park, and few visits to Canada. I learned map skills by studying the Rand McNally Road Atlas in the backseat of the car. Our meals tasted so good as my parents cooked outside with the Coleman propane stove and of course, we ended the night around a campfire enjoying s'mores!

Barbara J. Wulf