Barbara Odanaka, author of Skateboard Mom (Putnam), Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash! (McElderry), and the forthcoming Critter Cafe, lives and works in Laguna Beach, California.
A former sports reporter at the Los Angeles Times (she went by "Barbie Ludovise" then) Barb left daily journalism in 1994 to backpack around the world for a year with her husband, Paul, and write children's books.
In their travels, Barb and Paul huddled with mountain gorillas in Zaire, analyzed penguin poop in New Zealand, and scuba dived with sharks and other fabulous creatures in Borneo and Fiji. They backpacked through the Himalayas, motorcycled through parts of Vietnam, sampled turkey laap for Thanksgiving in Laos. Seventeen countries in twelve months...all on $30 a day.
After becoming a mom in 1996, Barb founded the International Society of Skateboarding Moms [now the nonprofit Skateboard Moms, Inc.], a supportive organization of "Women Who Dare To Have Fun." The group (open to all women) hosts the annual Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama in Orange County, California. The event, held every Mother's Day, benefits children's reading programs.
In March 2004, Barb launched Rolling4Reading, a literacy program that puts new and gently-used children's books into the hands of kids in need. Distribution is done on skateboard. Today, Skateboard Moms Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to fun, fitness and fearlessness.
