The Best of Iggy

Annie Barrows is an American author, born in 1969 in San Diego, California, and currently residing in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. Barrows began her career as an editor at Chronicle Books before transitioning to full-time writing. Although she initially wrote for adults, she has gained widespread recognition for her children’s books, particularly the popular Ivy + Bean series. This series consists of 12 books that follow the adventures of Ivy, a quiet intellectual girl, and Bean, a rowdy and exuberant girl. Like The Best of Iggy, the Ivy + Bean books feature illustrations but are not classified as picture books. Barrows is also the co-author, along with her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer, of the 2008 best-selling adult novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was adapted into a film in 2018.

Of her passion for writing for children, Barrows states:

I sometimes think I’ve spent my entire life trying to recreate one particular afternoon of my tenth year. That was the day I lay on the couch reading a wonderful book called Time at the Top until I lost all sense of my real life and joined the life of the book instead. [...] And finally, I’ve discovered a way: I write books (“About Annie.” Annie Barrows).

Barrow’s writing is characterized by its humor, warmth, keen understanding of young readers, and educational aspect. In The Best of Iggy, Barrows employs a humorous tone as the narrator recounts Iggy’s antics, while also aiming to teach young readers important lessons. The narrator addresses readers directly, explaining concepts such as extenuating circumstances in an accessible manner. Barrows has mentioned that her husband’s childhood antics “are the inspiration for Iggy and his adventures” (“About Annie“).