Kathryn Lasky

Last updated

Kathryn Lasky
Born (1944-06-24) June 24, 1944 (age 80)
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Pen nameE. L. Swann
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Michigan
Notable awards Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature; National Jewish Book Award; Newbery Honor
SpouseChristopher Knight
Website
kathrynlasky.com

Kathryn Lasky (born June 24, 1944) [1] is an American children's writer who also writes for adults under the names Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Her children's books include several Dear America books, The Royal Diaries books, Sugaring Time, The Night Journey , Wolves of the Beyond, and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Her awards include Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature, National Jewish Book Award, and Newbery Honor. [2]

Contents

Biography

Kathryn Lasky grew up in Indianapolis. She is Jewish and of Russian descent. [1] She is married to Christopher Knight, with whom she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in early childhood education from Wheelock College. [3]

She was the 2011 winner of the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature. [4]

She is the author of over one hundred books. Her most notable book series is Guardians of Ga’Hoole, which has more than 8 millions copies printed. Her books have been translated into 19 languages around the world. [1]

Her adult nonfiction work includes the 2011 book, Silk and Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider, a biography of the arachnologist Greta Binford, [5] and the 2017 bestseller Night Witches, the story of Soviet women pilots of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment in WWII. [6] [7]

Works

Camp Princess

The Royal Diaries

Dear America

My America

Daughters of the Sea

Horses of the Dawn

  1. The Escape (2014)
  2. Star Rise (2014)
  3. Wild Blood (2016)

Starbuck Family Adventures

Guardians of Ga'Hoole

  1. The Capture (also published as a movie tie-in edition in the UK as Legend of the Guardians)
  2. The Journey
  3. The Rescue
  4. The Siege
  5. The Shattering
  6. The Burning
  7. The Hatchling
  8. The Outcast
  9. The First Collier
  10. The Coming of Hoole
  11. To Be a King
  12. The Golden Tree
  13. The River of Wind
  14. Exile
  15. The War of the Ember

Two guide books were released to give readers more insight into the world of Hoole. They are narrated by the owl Otulissa.

Wolves Of The Beyond

The Deadlies

Bears of the Ice

Portraits

Standalone titles

Children and YA non-fiction


Picture books

Adult

Other than 'Night Gardening all Lasky's works for adult readers are under the name Kathryn Lasky Knight.

Calista Jacobs mystery

This series for adult readers was also written under the name Kathryn Lasky Knight.

  • Trace Elements (1986)
  • Mortal Words (1990)
  • Mumbo Jumbo (1991)
  • Dark Swan (1994)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Yolen</span> American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and childrens books (born 1939)

Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella. Her other works include the Nebula Award−winning short story "Sister Emily's Lightship", the novelette "Lost Girls", Owl Moon, The Emperor and the Kite, and the Commander Toad series. She has collaborated on works with all three of her children, most extensively with Adam Stemple.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole is a fantasy book series written by Kathryn Lasky and published by Scholastic. The series contains a total of 16 books and although originally intended to conclude with the 2008 publication of The War of the Ember, a prequel, The Rise of a Legend, was published in 2013. Apart from the main series there are a few more books and spin-offs set in the same universe. The first three books of the series were adapted into the 2010 animated 3D film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, directed by Zack Snyder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Wells</span> American speculative fiction writer (born 1964)

Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Reynolds Naylor</span> American writer (born 1933)

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is an American writer best known for children's and young adult fiction. Naylor is best known for her children's-novel quartet Shiloh and for her "Alice" book series, one of the most frequently challenged books of the last decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Murphy (author)</span> American author (1947–2022)

James John Patrick Murphy was an American author. He wrote more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens.

Dear America is a series of historical fiction novels for children published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles with 3.5 million copies in print. The series was canceled in 2004 with its final release, Hear My Sorrow. However, it was relaunched in the fall of 2010. Each book is written in the form of a diary of a young woman's life during important events or time periods in American history. The Dear America series covers a wide range of topics, including: the Pilgrims' journey to the New World, the Salem Witch Trials, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, western expansion, slavery, immigration, nineteenth-century prairie life, the California Gold Rush of 1849, the Great Depression, Native Americans' experiences, racism, coal mining, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the fight for women's suffrage, the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Battle of the Alamo, the Vietnam War, and more. The breadth of historical topics covered in these books through fiction makes the Dear America series a favorite teaching device of history schoolteachers around the country. The re-launch series and releases contain a new cover style and different pictures of the main characters than those of the original releases. Originally all the books had a ribbon inserted as a bookmark for the books but were removed in the later releases. Several of the stories were filmed and released on videotape.

The Royal Diaries is a series of 20 books published by Scholastic Press from 1999 to 2005. In each of the books, a fictional diary of a real female figure of royalty as a child throughout world history was written by the author. The Royal Diaries was a spin-off of Scholastic's popular Dear America series. While Dear America, My Name Is America, and My America were all cancelled in 2004, The Royal Diaries continued until 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Zweibel</span> American author, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and comedian

Alan Zweibel is an American writer, producer, director, comedian and actor whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

<i>The Night Journey</i> (novel) 1981 novel by Kathryn Lasky

The Night Journey is a 1981 novel by Kathryn Lasky.

<i>Blood Secret</i> Young adult novel by Kathryn Lasky

Blood Secret is a young adult novel by Kathryn Lasky.

<i>Letters from Rifka</i> 1992 childrens historical novel by Karen Hesse

Letters From Rifka is a children's historical novel by Karen Hesse, published by Holt in 1992. The novel is based on the life of Hesse's great-aunt Lucille Avrutin. With an intended young adult audience, the book aims to inform and validate. Letters from Rifka details a Jewish family's emigration from Russia in 1919, to Belgium and ultimately to the U.S. The protagonist's name, Rifka, is the East European Jewish version of Rebecca.

Laura Amy Schlitz is an American author of children's literature. She is a librarian and storyteller at the Park School of Baltimore in Brooklandville, Maryland.

The Tulsa City-County Library (TCCL) is the major public library system in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PJ Library</span>

PJ Library is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a North American Jewish non-profit organization based in Agawam, Massachusetts. It was created in December 2005 as a Jewish engagement and literacy program for Jewish families with young children.

<i>A Journey to the New World</i> 1996 novel by Kathryn Lasky

A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 is a historical novel for young readers. It is the first book in the series Dear America. Remember Patience Whipple is a girl who was on board the Mayflower and is sailing from England. She is headed toward the New World with her family of four. Mr. Whipple is Patience’s father and can fix things. Mam, Patience’s mother, and Blessing who is Patience’s little sister. Patience has a friend called Hummy and she too is sailing on the Mayflower to the New World. Hummy's father is who takes care of her, because Hummy's mother died, this makes Hummy's father very melancholic. This is the first novel in the Dear America series.

Diana Wynne Jones was a British writer of fantasy novels for children and adults. She wrote a small amount of non-fiction.

Kathy Kacer is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction for children about The Holocaust, and has written one adult fiction book (Restitution). She has won several awards and her books have been translated into a variety of languages. As well as writing, she speaks to children about the Holocaust, and to educators about teaching sensitive issues to young children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlon James (novelist)</span> Jamaican novelist (born 1970)

Marlon James is a Jamaican writer. He is the author of five novels: John Crow's Devil (2005), The Book of Night Women (2009), A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), which won him the 2015 Man Booker Prize, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2019), and Moon Witch, Spider King (2022).

David Metzenthen is an Australian writer for children and young adults who was born in Melbourne, Victoria.

<i>Black Leopard, Red Wolf</i> 2019 novel by Marlon James

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a 2019 fantasy novel by Jamaican writer Marlon James. It is the first book of the Dark Star Trilogy. The novel draws on African history and mythology, blended into the landscape of the North Kingdom and the South Kingdom, and the political tensions between these two warring states, as well as various city-states and tribes in the surrounding landscape. The rights to produce a film adaptation were purchased by Michael B. Jordan in February 2019 prior to release of the book.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lasky, Kathryn. "Biography / About Kathryn Lasky". Kathryn Lasky. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  2. Lasky, Kathryn. "Awards and Accolades". Kathryn Lasky. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  3. "Kathryn Lasky". Lookingglassreview.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  4. "Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature". Tulsa Library Trust.
  5. Graves, Bill (November 17, 2011). "Lewis & Clark's spider researcher Greta Binford named 2011 Oregon Professor of the Year". The Oregonian . Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  6. "Night Witches by Kathryn Lasky". Kirkus Reviews . January 15, 2017. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  7. Lasky, Kathryn (2017). Night Witches. Scholastic. ISBN   978-0-545-68298-5 . Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  8. Lasky, Kathryn (2013). Wolves of the Beyond #6: Star Wolf (Hardcover). ISBN   978-0545279628.
  9. "NJBA Winners". Jewish Book Council.
  10. "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  11. "Sophie and Rose by Kathryn Lasky". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  12. Sophie and Rose, by Kathryn Lasky | Booklist Online .
  13. "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  14. "Marven of the Great North Woods". PJ Library.