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Janis Pardue Hill, PhD, a retired university professor and lifelong educator, holds a BS in English education, an MA in literature, and a PhD in Curriculum Theory. She has taught in secondary and university classrooms, as a Program Coordinator in the Louisiana Department of Education, and as a Curriculum Coordinator in the Ouachita Parish School System.

Dr. Hill retired from Louisiana Tech University in 2010 to dedicate herself to family, with the publication of her father’s notes and journals her top priority. She spent the last two years of her father’s life talking with him and interviewing him about the plethora of journals and notes he had recorded after he returned from the war about his experiences on the Bataan Death March and in Japanese POW camps. That memoir, entitled Telling His Story: POW #1000 The Bataan Death March and Japanese POW Camps, was published on December 2, 2022; and since that time, Dr. Hill has spoken at numerous events, including the 2023 Louisiana Book Fair where the memoir was one of the featured books. Telling His Story: POW #1000 is currently in republication. BUG: The Story of a Special Bug and His Little Boy is her first children’s book.

Dr. Hill and her husband, Charles A. Hill, Jr., have two children, Trey and Amy; three grandchildren, Jack Hill, Harper Bourgeois and Emma Bourgeois; and a son-in-law Bartley Bourgeois. Dr. Hill and her husband live in North Louisiana.

BUG: The Story of a Special Bug and His Little Boy tells the story of a bug who finds a patio he likes so much he makes it his home. The story is based on an actual small bug that “took up residence” on the patio of the home of the author’s son. He and his son spread food out for him and watched Bug for weeks. He would fly away but always returned. Therefore, being  lovers of all “creatures,” big and small, father and son grew very attached to him. When the author heard the story, she was inspired to “tell the story of Bug.” Thus, the book came into being.