What’s New?

Breaking Through Is Out Now!

I am excited to announce that Breaking Through, the third book in a loosely formed trilogy that looks at women’s history through the lens of sports and physical activity, has been published by National Geographic Children’s Books! Wheels of Change (2011) focused on the impact of the bicycle on women’s liberation in the 1890s, and Motor Girls (2017) concentrated on how women overcame biases about them operating motor vehicles to embrace the freedom of driving in the 1900s and 1910s. Breaking Through zeroes in on the 1920s, the first “Golden Age of Women’s Sports,” when women broke barriers and won great acclaim, only to come up against sexist reporters and female physical educators who worried that competition posed a threat to women’s health and femininity. Read Booklist’s starred review here.

The Book Rescuer receives the Sydney Taylor Picture Book Award!

On June 30, 2020, illustrator Stacy Innerst and I accepted the 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Picture Book category for The Book Rescuer via Zoom. Named in memory of the author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series, this honor recognizes a picture book that exemplifies “high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.” The ceremony took place during the annual conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, a five-day affair which successfully migrated to Zoom due to the COVID-19 quarantine. To hear Sydney Taylor Book Award committee chair Rebecca Levitan discuss the winning books in the Picture Book, Middle Grade, and Young Adult categories, click here.