Sherri L. Smith is an American writer. Her novel Flygirl was selected as one of the American Library Association's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults. [1]
Sherri L. Smith is an American writer. Her novel Flygirl was selected as one of the American Library Association's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults. [1]
Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois. Since then she has moved around all of the three coasts: New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles. After high school, she went to college to study film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Broadcast Journalism, an M.S. in Business, and a M.A. in Humanities. She also has a certificate in Enchantivism from the Pacifica Institute. [2]
Smith worked in stop-motion animation for Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! . She worked for three years at Disney TV Animation. After leaving Disney, Smith worked with a construction company at Los Angeles International Airport. This is where she began work on her first novel. After that, she spent nine years working at Bongo Comics.
Sherri teaches at Goddard College and Hamline University. She is a member of the Two Trees Writers' Collaborative.
Smith lives in Los Angeles with her partner and her cat. She is writing novels for young adults, including Flygirl, [3] Sparrow, [4] [5] Orleans, [6] and Lucy the Giant. She is on the faculty of Goddard College's MFA in Creative Writing Program and Hamline University's MFA in Children's Writing Program.
Orleans can be categorized as a dystopian, Afrofuturist novel. This novel can also be categorized as a climate fiction novel, which uses fiction to speculate about reality after climate disasters. These type of novels aim to create empathy in readers and to help them conceptualize effects of natural disasters on their way of life. The book takes place in a speculative future where New Orleans has been devastated by several more powerful Hurricanes after Katrina, and a deadly virus has formed as a result. To keep the virus contained, the United States detaches from New Orleans and sets up a wall, guarded by the military to ensure that nobody comes in or out. Themes of race, climate change, and gender are central in this story about the future. [8] Orleans exhibits themes of loss and hope. Fen frequently feels as if it is the end of line for her, and that all is lost. This ties into the generational loss of this world after Katrina and due to the plague. The baby represents a new chance for the world and for Fen. This hope is what drives Fen. The baby, if kept pure, can be seen as a beacon for future generations of those stuck behind the wall. Out of this loss comes an ember of hope. Fen goes on to die, saving Daniel and the baby. Again, even in the loss of her life, there is hope for the future.
Orleans follows the story of Fen de la Guerre. She is a sixteen year old girl living with the O-Positive Tribe with her pregnant leader Lydia. When they are suddenly ambushed, Fen is left with Lydia’s newborn baby. Fen is determined to get the baby over the Wall and into a better life before her blood gets contaminated. Fen soon meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into Orleans illegally looking for a cure. They quickly form an unlikely alliance, and they navigate the wilderness of Orleans. They soon realize they may become each other’s hope for survival. [9]
Orleans has received numerous awards, including the 2014 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year list, the 2014 Cooperative Children’s Book Center Best Fiction for Young Adults, and the 2013 Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Book. [10]
Orleans was also nominated for the 2016 Louisiana Young Readers Choice, the 2015 Magnolia Book Awards, and was awarded an honorable mention in the 2014 Westchester Fiction Award. [11]
"Sparrow" is a Teen and Young Adult Fiction Novel. The book takes the reader on the journey of young Kendalls search for her own identity. After her grandmother passed away, she felt as if she did not know who she was anymore. Her identity up to this point was strongly founded in family. After failed attempts to reach out to a distant relative she started to re build her life. Kendall met new friends and started having new experiences. Step by step she rebuilt her life and found her true identity.
Flygirl (2010) is about a young woman who joins the American Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program during World War II, which allowed women to fly planes in non-combat roles. The protagonist is Ida Mae Jones, a light-skinned African-American woman who pass es for white in order join up and get the chance to fly. [1] Kirkus called it "well-told", "interesting", and "vibrant". [12]
Bongo Comics Group was a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Matt Groening along with Steve & Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison. It published comics related to the animated television series The Simpsons and Futurama, as well as the SpongeBob SquarePants comics, along with original material. The company was named after Bongo, a rabbit character in Groening's comic strip Life in Hell.
Carol Lay is an American alternative cartoonist best known for her weekly comic strip, Story Minute, which ran for almost 20 years in such US papers as the LA Weekly, the NY Press, and on Salon. Lay has been drawing professionally for over 30 years. Based in Los Angeles, Lay's strips and illustrations have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Mad, Newsweek, Worth Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker.
Joan Baehler Bauer is an American writer of young adult literature currently residing with her husband Evan Bauer in Brooklyn. Bauer was born in River Forest, Illinois. They are the parents of one daughter, Jean. Before becoming a famous author Joan spent years working for McGraw-Hill and the Chicago Tribune. She also did some work in advertising, marketing, and screenwriting.
Bones of the Moon is a novel by American writer Jonathan Carroll, depicting the real and dream life of a young woman. Like many of Carroll's works, it straddles the horror and fantasy genres.
Raina Diane Telgemeier is an American cartoonist. Her works include the autobiographical webcomic Smile, which was published as a full-color graphic novel in February 2010, and the follow-up Sisters and the fiction graphic novel Drama, all of which have been on The New York Times Best Seller lists. She has also written and illustrated the graphic novels Ghosts and Guts as well as four graphic novels adapted from The Baby-Sitters Club stories by Ann M. Martin.
Martha Elizabeth "Libba" Bray is an American writer of young adult novels including the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Going Bovine, and The Diviners.
Rosa Cuthbert Guy was a Trinidad-born American writer who grew up in the New York metropolitan area. Her family had immigrated and she was orphaned when young. Raised in foster homes, she later was acclaimed for her books of fiction for adults and young people that stressed supportive relationships.
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer of young adult fiction best known for the historical novel A Northern Light.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow is a series of novels for young readers written by Rob Kidd. The series is published by Disney Press and was written as a literary companion to the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The events in the series take place before the events in the movies. The books are about Jack Sparrow's teen years before he becomes a pirate. It is followed by the series Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court, set thirteen years before Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Dean Rankine is an Australian comics artist, writer and illustrator. Rankine's work has appeared in many comics, books and magazines.
Tony DiGerolamo is a comic book writer and Colonel Sanders impersonator from New Jersey.
Nina Matsumoto is a Japanese-Canadian cartoonist, also known as "space coyote", and most known for creating the comic book series Yōkaiden for Del Rey Manga. She created the webcomic Saturnalia, and has worked as a penciller on Simpsons Comics and The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story graphic novel. She is also the artist and co-creator of Sparks!, a graphic novel series for Scholastic Books.
Impossible is a novel by Danielle Steel, published by Delacorte Press in March 2005. The book is Steel's sixty-fifth novel.
Georgess McHargue was an American writer and poet.
Soft Focus is a contemporary romance written by Jayne Ann Krentz. It was released in hardcover by Putnam on January 3, 2000 and reached number 12 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Alice Lightner Hopf (1904-1988) was an American writer who wrote young adult science fiction under the name of A. M. Lightner and youth nature books under the name of Alice Hopf. Two of her non-fiction works received awards from the National Science Teachers Association: Biography of a Rhino (1972) and Misunderstood Animals (1973).
Ramona Stewart was an American author. She is best known for her 1946 novel Desert Town and the 1970 supernatural thriller The Possession of Joel Delaney, both of which were adapted into films.
Karen M. McManus is an American author of young adult fiction. She is most known for her first novel, One of Us Is Lying, which spent more than 130 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. One of Us Is Lying was optioned as a pilot by NBC and the television adaption premiered on Peacock in October 2021. Its sequel, One of Us Is Next, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Kirkus Reviews gave Two Can Keep a Secret a starred review and named it one of the best books of 2019.
Ashley Woodfolk is an American writer. She is the author of the young adult books The Beauty That Remains (2018) and When You Were Everything (2020).
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