One More!

I just learned that Barnum's Bones was also selected as a 2014 Rhode Island Children's Book Award Nominee!   What a wonderful honor from one of my favorite states!  You can check out the complete list of nominees here.

Dare the Wind Will Be Blowing In Soon!

My newest picture book, Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud, is coming soon!  It will be published in February 2014 by Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar, Straus & Giroux and is illustrated by the wonderful Emily Arnold McCully.  Dare the Wind is based on the true story of Eleanor "Ellen" Prentiss, the first woman to navigate a clipper ship from New York to San Francisco.  Ellen not only completed the trip, her daring 1851 voyage set a world record for speed, too! 

Ellen was a fascinating subject to research and write about, particularly since she was a Massachusetts girl, raised in nearby Marblehead.  What fun to walk the same cobbled streets that she did!  I'll be posting more in the coming months about Dare the Wind's voyage from concept to picture book.