Rebecca was born into a family of artists on June 12, 1958. Her parents met in art school. Her father Ed Emberley, studying illustration, her mother Barbara (Collins) Emberley, studying fashion design. Growing up in Ipswich Massachusetts, Rebecca absorbed both of her parents knowledge and influence. For 2 years she ran rampant, until her brother Michael was born in 1960.
Her universe jarred, she tried to send him back, resorting to shutting him in a dresser drawer. But he was not so easily put off, he protested loudly, was rescued, survived and grew up to be a celebrated children’s illustrator, author and passionate bicycle rider and racer.
An avid reader, she taught herself to read at 4, the Ipswich Public Library was paradise, and her favorite day of the school year was Book Fair day. She was the only child in her class to be given a blank check to take home as many books as she could carry. She still has some of them. Rebecca continues reading avidly, devouring other peoples words and ideas, sometimes even before breakfast.
When she wasn’t reading, in this family of artists, she was encouraged and instructed in art and handcraft. There was always sewing, drawing, and writing going on. She was also very busy physically; camping, skiing, hiking, bike riding, as well as school sports, were all a big part of her childhood. She grew up so long ago that she actually walked to school (and most other places, until the state of Massachusetts in a risky move, gave her a drivers license at the age of 16) .
Summers were spent on her parents sailboat until it was her turn to protest loudly (that was the first time, she swears) and she begged to stay home in the summertime. To keep her from running wild in the streets, her parents began more formal art training. By this time Rebecca was teenager and she had already worked with copper enameling, batik, built a small sailing dinghy, made lots of clothes, silver smithing, and more. (Her brother had done many of these same things along with her, but hey-this her story. He can tell you his story at (www.michaelemberley.com) Making things made her happy and she worked through high school selling the things she made at craft fairs. High school summers brought studio time. Life drawing, watercolor, oils, acrylics, perspective, layout and design, collage, mechanical drawing, were all explored until her head wanted to explode. Thankfully, it did not.

Armed with all these experiences, along with the usual number of skinned knees, broken bones, and broken hearts that accompany all growth, Rebecca set off to find her fame and fortune. She stumbled and bumbled through her young adulthood. She traveled a little, sometimes working with her father to do technical artwork like color separations, for his children’s books. When she was 20 she attempted her first solo book which understandably resembled her fathers drawing book series. The result was the rather successful Drawing with Numbers and Letters. At this point she promptly left illustration altogether deciding it was too solitary for her and she went to work in the restaurant business, thinking she would do artwork on her time off. That didn’t work very well and she bumbled around for a few more years.
The next interesting thing that happen in her life was that Rebecca gave birth to the most wonderful child in the world. Adrian Elizabeth Carney was born on November 2, 1985, and Rebecca’s life changed forever. This remarkable child charmed and inspired everyone she met and never shut anyone in a dresser drawer. Rebecca once again made a prompt change and returned to artwork to spend more time with the most wonderful child in the world. She made a big change in her style and dropped line drawing in favor of cut-paper collage as a means of illustration. This combined her love of design and the tactile pleasures of paper and fabric from her childhood. All her mother’s and fathers influence came together and she created Jungle Sounds and City Sounds. And so began her career in children’s book illustrating. She decided she could earn more money if she wrote her own books so she worked hard at that, although concept books come more easily to her. Rebecca produced 25 more books in the next 20 years, including a series of bilingual books, inspired by watching children in a pre-school in Colorado, all communicating while speaking several different languages.
In those same 20 years, Adrian, the most wonderful child (and grandchild) in the world, grew up to be an artist in her own right.
She traveled everywhere her mother went. They had many adventures together. She absorbed all the knowledge and influence of the people around her. She is a singer songwriter, actress, photographer, playwright and college student. She lives in Boston Massachusetts, you can find out more about her at www.purevolume.com/adrianemberley. She helped to inspire many of Rebecca’s books including Rebecca’s newest project; the Adventure Girl series, and she co-wrote the official Adventure Girl’s song.
Rebecca’s brother Michael also contributed some very cool drawings to AdventureGirls book 1. He continues to draw and paint amazing pictures in San Diego California. Rebecca’s parent’s still live in Ipswich in the 17th century house that Rebecca and Michael grew up in. They continue creating children’s books and influencing people. You can find out more about them at www.edemberley.com.

Rebecca has traveled a little bit, she likes small quiet islands, from the Carribean to the coast of Maine and has lived in many different places. She now lives in Kittery, Maine on the remnants of an old farm. She has a big old barn to hold all her books, her studio and all the other junk she has accumulated over the years. She reads, travels, cooks, throws parties, always has one or two messy projects going and works with kids in lots of different ways.
She found out in her search for fame and fortune that they don’t matter very much. Some of the things that matter to her are love, health, kindness, curiosity, passion, learning, adventure, cats and chocolate.