Born on August 31, 1923, she lived primarily in a Church Street apartment in Toronto. She played an important role in founding the Storyteller's School of Toronto and the 1001 Friday Nights of Storytelling. She started Mother Goose Comes to the Children's Aid, a program to help parents bond with their infants and lessen the possibility of abuse. She published two books, How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Childrens' Books, based on an adventure with her first husband and their young family (Viking, 1965), and a children's book, Clever Lazy, The Girl who Invented Herself (Athaneum, 1979). Joan Bodger died of cancer in B.C. in 2002.

[BCBW 2003]