Karen L. Evans (Friedley) Tabak November 7, 1941-December 6, 2011

Karen L. (Friedley) Tabak was one of the founders of Kaeden Books. During her twenty year association with the company, she authored or co-authored 22 books under the pen name Karen Evans. Her popular Sammy stories have been read by over two million children throughout the world and have been published in three different languages: English, Spanish and French.

She began her twenty-five year career in education as a Kindergarten teacher with Lorain City Schools. She was trained in Reading Recovery in the early nineties and later became a Reading Supervisor for the same school district. She retired from the district in 2005.

As a Kindergarten teacher, she teamed up with Kathleen Urmston to write stories for children who were having difficulty learning to read. The first book of the Sammy series, Dressed Up Sammy published in 1991, and the second book, Sammy at the Farm published in 1992, have sold over 50,000 copies each. She also co-authored the popular Sammy Gets a Ride (1997) and Sammy's Moving (1998) and authored the three latest titles in the Sammy Series, Sammy Loves to Run (2007), Sammy Gets a Bath (2008) and Sammy's Walk (2009). She also co-authored the popular titles Looking for Halloween (1991) and Gifts for Dad (1992) along with 4 audio books and 10 eBooks.

She loved writing stories, was great at editing, and had wonderful time talking to educators across the country at reading conferences as well as entertaining and educationg countless children and adults. She will be greatly missed.