Elizabeth Garton grew up in
Vail, Colorado and later moved to
Wisconsin. Her undergraduate degree was in English and her graduate was in
Creative Writing. After helping her daughter put on
socks she got the idea for her first book,
A Sock Is A Pocket for Your Toes (2004). Five years later in September 2009, her second book
All the World was published. It was illustrated by
Marla Frazee, and won the
Caldecott Award in 2010. In March 2011, Scanlon's third book, illustrated by Arthur Howard,
Noodle and Lou, a story following a pair of unlikely friends, a bird and a worm, was released. Following
Noodle and Lou came another children's book,
Think Big, which is a "lyrical celebration of imagination and creativity in many child-friendly forms – painting, writing, acting, cooking, dancing and more, was illustrated by Vanessa Newton and published by
Bloomsbury in Summer 2012."
Happy Birthday, Bunny! was released in January 2013 and was illustrated by Stephanie Graegin. Scanlon is also reported to publish another children's book titled
The Good- Pie Party, which is set to be illustrated by
Kady MacDonald Denton and released in 2014. ==Personal life==