BAD BADGEr: A LOVE STORY, NOW ON SALE

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ With three starred reviews so far, the reception of Bad Badger: A Love Story has me feeling like a very lucky badger indeed! Stop back again soon for the latest news and events.

My last book was Alice’s Farm, A Rabbits’ Tale, a middle-grade novel which the New York Times called “delightful and quirky and full of good will…necessary for some kids right now.” This tale of a wild rabbit who joins forces with a human boy in order to save their shared farmland home was named a Charlotte Huck recommended book by the NCTE. Newbery medalist Rebecca Stead called it “tender and wonderful. It’s a fantasy, it’s real, it's just a joy. And absolutely a book for our times."

I fell in love with writing middle grade when I began The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, all about a teenaged governess and her three raised-by-wolves pupils, published by Balzer + Bray. Titles in the six-book series have appeared on “Best Children’s Books of the Year” lists from NPR, Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus, and others. They’ve been Junior Library Guild selections and received multiple starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and Booklist.

(The fun with Miss Penelope Lumley and her wolfish pupils continues at The Swanburne Academy, an online community for incorrigibly curious families who love to learn and grow, together.)

Early in my writing career, I wrote seven novels for young adults, including My Life: The Musical (Delacorte) and Why I Let My Hair Grow Out (Berkley Books). My personal essays and short fiction appear in Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green (Random House), Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperCollins), Who Done It? (Soho Teen), and Starry-Eyed (Running Press).

I started my creative career in the theater, in the original Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, the cult flop-turned-beloved Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical featured in the 2016 documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (now streaming). I studied acting and film and television writing at NYU, and comedy writing and improv with the Groundlings. I’m very proud to be a three-time winner of the Richard Rodgers Award in recognition for my work as a lyricist/librettist; this award is administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

I’m a deep believer in the power of well-structured, gorgeously written narratives to have a lasting impact. I offer training and mentorship for writers through Path of the Storyteller. I’ve taught fiction writing at CUNY-Lehman College and NYU’s Gallatin School, and served on the faculty of the Stony Brook Children’s Literature Fellows program.

I’m a native New Yorker who’s also lived in Southern California. I have two amazing adult children and now live and write in southern Italy.