Carol Story is the author of several children’s books that educate young readers about the importance of conservation and species survival. A long-time conservationist, Carol is passionate about preserving life on our planet for future generations. After retiring from a corporate career, she began monitoring shore birds for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, which led to the first book in her “Ellie’s Day” series of children’s books, Ellie’s Day at the Shore. When she’s not writing books, she works as a docent at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo where she mentors new volunteers, walks the zoo grounds sharing animal stories with guests and conducts Zoo Walkabouts. She has been on several "eco-field trips," helping with projects such as combatting invasive plant species. She has also recently taken on the role of Vice President of the zoo's Volunteer Council and is the editor of the zoo’s newsletter, The Howler. Her articles have appeared in Symbiosis, a national quarterly publication published by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Docents and Volunteers.
But it was the American Red Wolves at the zoo that stole her heart. Every chance she gets, Carol shares the red wolf story with guests in the hope that more people will want to help conserve the American Red Wolf. That is also the goal of Carol's latest book, Born Wild.
Carol lives in Connecticut with her partner, George, and they can often be found hiking the shores and trails of New England.
If you’ve read any of the "Ellie's Day" books, you won’t be surprised to learn that Dr. Suess was her favorite author of children's books. But that’s not how she got started writing children’s books of her own.
Carol’s mother had a habit of writing rhymes to mark special occasions; she always referred to them as “Rotten Rhymes”. Over the years, Carol picked up that habit and would write rhymes to commemorate special occasions of friends and family – retirements, weddings, relocations. In her retirement, Carol began volunteering for various environmental causes, long a passion of hers. One of her favorite volunteer jobs was walking the beach in Stratford, Connecticut for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, where she helped monitor the piping plovers, least terns, common terns and American oystercatchers nesting there.
She would share her observations with her mother, who had long been interested in birds. After her mother’s death and at the suggestion of a friend, she wrote her first book, Ellie’s Day at the Shore as a way to tie together her mother’s memory with her volunteer work. Ellie's Day at the Zoo, Ellie's Day in the Woods and Born Wild followed naturally, based on her zoo and hiking experiences.
