Annie Barrows was born in 1962 in San Diego, California. Her family moved to the small town of San Anselmo, California, when Barrows was a baby. She developed a love for literature as a child, resembling the bookish Willa in spending all her free time in the local public library, where, as a teenager, she worked part-time.

Barrows graduated with a BA in medieval history from the University of California-Berkeley and then worked in educational publishing for several years. She earned an MA in creative writing at Mills College in 1996. Her first publications were nonfiction texts for adults, but she soon became interested in writing for children. She has written numerous children’s books, including the award-winning Ivy and Bean and the Iggy series.

Barrows was a well-established children’s writer when she was contacted by her aunt, Mary Anne Schaffer, a librarian and editor whose first novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, had been provisionally accepted for publication. As the publishers required major rewriting and Schaffer’s health was rapidly failing, Barrows finished her aunt’s novel as a co-author. Like The Truth According to Us, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (2008) tells the story of a young female historian who chronicles events in a small community.