Diane Swanson

Swanson was born and raised in Lethbridge, Alberta.^[4] As a child, she and her terrier Sammy would spend summers looking for ladybugs and spiders outside.^[5]

She graduated from the University of Alberta with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in the social sciences.^[2][4] She taught in the West Indies for two years.^[4] She researched water resources for the Canadian government while living in Ottawa.^[4]

Swanson's first book was published when she was 18.^[2] She wrote over 70 books and 450 magazine articles.^[4]

Swanson lived in Victoria, British Columbia.^[4] Her hobbies were hiking, piano-playing, and reading.^[2] She was married with two children.^[6]

The Toronto Globe and Mail described Swanson's A Crash of Rhinos, A Party of Jays as providing "a cheerfully educational vantage point from which to view the natural world and its denizens".^[7] Booklist called it "part science and part English lesson", deeming it "great for individual or classroom consumption".^[8]

The Globe and Mail called The Wonder in Water a "well-laid-out and attractively illustrated book".^[9]

Nzong Xiong, writing for The Fresno Bee, described The Dentist & You as an "easy-to-read" book designed to help make dentist visits for children ages 4 to 7 "easier and less fearful".^[10] Resource Links found it to be useful for "parents wanting to prepare their children for their first visit to the dentist" or teachers, but found the book "a bit too long and detailed" for the target audience.^[11] School Library Journal, however, tagged it as "excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject".^[12]

Buffalo Sunrise was called "a full-bodied photo essay" and an "exemplary book" that "ably" recounts the history of the American buffalo by the San Francisco Chronicle.^[13] Booklist called it "a useful resource for middle-graders".^[14]

Reviewing Alligators and Crocodiles, Frogs and Toads and Penguins from the Welcome to the World of Animals series for the School Library Journal, Arwen Marshall of the Minneapolis Public Library criticized the narrow scope of the books, saying "These serviceable overviews might be useful for brief reports, but they don't cover any new ground."^[15] Resource Links found the series to provide "enough information to satisfy [students'] curiosity while also meeting their research needs",^[16] recommending the books "for any elementary school library".^[17]

Swanson was recipient of the following awards:^[18]

CWILL B.C. Canadian Children's Book Centre