Kara Lareau Books In Order

Publication Order of Ratso Brothers Books

Publication Order of The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters Books

Publication Order of The Zombert Chronicles Books

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of The ZomBert Chronicles Books

Kara Lareau is an American author who spent many years working as an editor before finally sitting down to write her own fiction. Lareau is known for works like the ‘Rastos Brothers’ series and the ‘Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters’ books.

+Biography
Kara Lareau was born in the 1970s in Connecticut. The author would like to believe that she had a fairly ordinary upbringing. Her extended family was intimately involved in her life and she admits that they were a dysfunctional but ultimately well-meaning bunch.

Lareau always stood out. As a child, she only ever wore old clothes that had been donated to her by a distant relative. An avid fan of Shaun Cassidy and a regular follower of the TV Show ‘Donny and Marie’, Lareau wanted so badly to hang with the cool kids in school.

But that was made difficult by her headgear which made even her feathered hair unappealing. It came as little surprise to her when he went virtually unnoticed by the boys. Though, Kara Lareau was not completely invisible.

She had a big mouth that often got her into trouble with all the wrong people. She was also fortunate to have a small group of friends who appreciated her snarky attitude. For a little while, Lareau thought her school life would transform once she abandoned the hand-me-downs for new clothes but she quickly found that her fashion style was only one of several aspects that excluded her from the cool club.

Of course, the author’s high school experience wasn’t without its highs. It was in high school that Lareau discovered her love for the arts. She realized that she could sing and act.

And considering her total disinterest in education, Lareau’s discovery of the theater gave her teenage years purpose. She was fortunate to have a master key to the school which she used to hone her skills on the stage.

For quite a while, Lareau thought she had finally discovered her calling. But then one of her friends compelled her to give the school newspaper a shot and everything changed.

Lareau knew she was born to write when she realized that she was spending several nights every week researching stories and arranging articles. She had never felt more alive than she did while putting her writing abilities to the purposes of getting her school paper ready.

And by the time she went to college, there was no doubt in her mind that her future lay in publishing. Of course, life kept throwing complications her way, the most distracting being the many unfulfilling romantic relationships she indulged.

Kara Lareau will tell you that even those experiences served a purpose. They pushed her to do even more writing. Though, at the time, all she did was write terrible poetry. But she enjoyed every minute of it.

Lareau primarily honed her writing abilities through the multitude of writing workshops she attended, eventually getting her MFA (Writing, Literature, and Publishing) from Emerson College in Boston.

For a time, Kara Lareau’s life was consumed by her editing work. She primarily edited children’s books and one assumes that she enjoyed it because she stuck with the career for over a decade.

She eventually left that field but only because she wanted to experiment with the freelance editing business. Lareau was actually successful in her endeavor. She also began to write with a little more gusto.

Though, Kara Lareau was only driven to give publishing a real shot when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.

The author struggled with chronic shoulder pain for months before her doctors discovered that she had contracted a rare form of soft tissue cancer. She had to undergo many complex surgeries, not to mention various sessions of chemotherapy.

The cancer eventually went away. But the treatments took Lareau away from her work for long periods of time. And the author used that downtime to write.

A lot of what she wrote will never see the light of day. But it was during that period of time that the author’s writing career began to take off.

Kara Lareau does not take her success for granted. She knows that a lot of talented aspiring writers never achieve their publishing dreams. She has no magic bullets to offer struggling amateur authors.

Her only advice is for them to keep writing and then hope for the best. Lareau was fortunate in that her editing work immersed her in the works of other authors. So it wasn’t that unexpected when she eventually nurtured a desire to write her own stories.

The author imputes some of her success to pure luck. She wrote a lot of manuscripts when she was starting out. She believes that she was fortunate to send one of her stories to an editor who got her sense of humor well enough to offer her a book contract.

Kara Lareau has a husband and a child. She struggles with insomnia.

+Ugly Fish
Ugly Fish is the biggest meanest thing around, and he likes it that way. He has no interest in sharing his driftwood tunnel with anyone. And he definitely has no qualms about devouring all the wimpy fish that keep invading his space.

Ugly Fish thought that his place at the top of the food chain would never be challenged. But then the unexpected happened; a new fish, this one bigger, meaner and uglier than even Ugly Fish, joined the tank.

All of a sudden, Ugly Fish wasn’t the predator. Suddenly, Ugly Fish didn’t have the confidence to assert his dominance, not when his life was in so much peril.

+The Infamous Rastos
Big Lou is big and tough. And as far as he is concerned, it is the duty of the tough to assert their dominance over the soft. His sons Louie and Ralphie know this. Lou has spent every waking moment of their lives knocking this lesson home.

So the boys are determined to prove that they are indeed the toughest there is. However, things never go quite as they plan. Somehow, Louie and Ralphie keep doing good. It is never their intention but things keep taking a positive turn for those they wish to distress.

Now they do not know what to tell Big Lou who won’t be happy when he learns that his sons are acting like big softies.