Official Author Portrait

Claudia Gouveia is best-known for her children’s book Ellie Fairy Meets Cordelia Bee and her upcoming Ellie Fairy book series. The Ellie Fairy book series consists of seventeen stories featuring Ellie and her friends. Each book will include new adventures of Ellie along with her already known friends and new friends to be introduced throughout the series.

Claudia Gouveia was born in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal on January 13, 1982. As an only child, she spent the majority of her days alone but always found creative ways to entertain herself. She especially loved spending her days in her parents garage playing ‘architect’ with wooden crates. Claudia would lay them out to make a homes divisions, the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and her favorite room - her office. In her office, made out of crates, she would bring in her children’s books, a notebook and coloring pencils, and get to work writing and creating images of characters. Although the characters never came out on paper like she had envisioned them, she would write the characters descriptions in detail…at least to the best way she knew how.

At the age of 7, her parents decided to ‘go on a new adventure’ and move to the United States. In a new country, with no friends or siblings, Claudia spent her days in her bedroom at her desk writing, drawing, coloring, and reading books by Berenstain Bears and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. These books were her prized possessions, and she credits them for learning how to read English proficiently, and how to annunciate words without an accent. Claudia continued to create stories until the age of eleven, at which time she was awarded to being a big sister and took on the role of a second mom to her little sister Hillary.

Years later, after a near death incident, Claudia began to view her life differently and decided to make drastic life changes. In her process of defining who she is at her core, she remembered her childhood’s passion for books, reading, and creating stories. During this ‘discovery’ she spent days talking to her husband, Luis Gouveia, about her childhood memories and how she always felt best at her desk writing. In an attempt to encourage Claudia to begin writing again, Luis surprised her with a visit to the Apple Store for her to pick out a new computer solely for her new adventure. Voila - Ellie Fairy was born!
It is Claudia’s wish that all who read the books of Ellie Fairy feel joy in the adventures.