Australian-New Zealander children’s author Laurel Colless grew up with books as her friends. Always a fan of adventure stories with twists, Laurel reverts to her eleven-year-old self when writing the Peter Blue books, a science fantasy series where a group of young friends solve big world problems and battle the evil foes of climate change.

A literary comparatist by education, Laurel spent 25 years working in environmental business and journalism in Asia, the US and Europe, before coming back to writing. She is the founder of the Carbon Busters Club, a kids’ climate-science program that combines storytelling with science education. In 2013, Laurel Colless became an Al Gore Climate Reality Leader.

When Laurel is not writing or busting carbon, she likes reading, watching movies, forest walking with her dog (and sometimes even her cat!) and spending time with her teenage daughters. She is a fan of golf, tennis, yoga, and swimming in the sea (not with her cat). Laurel now makes her home in Helsinki with her Finnish husband, their two daughters, a wiry-haired dachshund and a rescue cat. Renegale Tales  is the third book in her upper middle-grade science fantasy series.