My publishers


  1. •Carolrhoda Books, Inc./Lerner Publishing

  2. •Borealis Books/Minnesota Historical Society Press

  3. •Delacorte Press/Yearling

  4. •Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

  5. • Sleeping Bear Press

 

Books for Young Readers

Highlighted Reviews


For I Wonder As I Wander:


The author captures Appalachian cadences as surely as Cynthia Rylant and George Ella Lyon do....Himler's pencil-and-watercolor illustrations make Annie, her father, and their struggles come to life. This book is a treasure. In the spirit of the hymn itself, it soars high and true. Gr 2-5. School Library Journal (February 2004)

For Chig and the Second Spread:

Tiny Chig (“That girl ain’t any bigger than a little red chigger”) Kalpin is eight in 1933 when she first enters the one-room school in her small Indiana town where a warm-hearted veteran teacher helps Chig to grow in spirit and courage, if not much in inches. The bigger boys torment her, but kind, lazy Willy Huddleston becomes and ally and marble-playing mentor. The “second spread” refers to the sandwich fillings that have gone missing from Chig’s schoolmates’ lunches by the time she is ten—a casualty of the hard times that have crept from the city to the country. Chig’s acts of heroism both big and small, from a train catastrophe diverted to restoring the second spread for everyone, stem from her good heart and good sense. Endearing—and not one bit cloying—faultlessly paced, and rich in colloquialisms real or invented, Chig is a textured, sympathetic look at rural life during the Depression and at a champion of a girl. Kirkus Review (Starred Review/November 1, 2003)


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I am the author of more than two dozen books for young readers. Here are some of my most popular and forthcoming titles:


Riding to Washington (Sleeping Bear Press, 2008. 40 pages. $17.95.) Illustrated by David Geister. Picture book about a young white girl who travels with her father to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., speak in Washington, D.C., in August 1963, and who has to face discrimination along the way. Click here for a Teacher’s Guide.


Wanda Gág: Storybook Artist (Borealis Books/Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005) Juvenile biography of the Minnesota-born illustrator and author of the classic children’s picture book Millions of Cats.

Winner, Minnesota Book Award for Children’s Nonfiction, 2006.


Sojourner Truth(Carolrhoda Books, Inc./Lerner Publishing, 2005) Illustrated by Matthew Archambault. Beginning chapter-book biography of an outspoken opponent of slavery and champion of women’s rights.   


Chig and the Second Spread (Delacorte Press/Dell Yearling, 2003) The tallish tale of a small girl, this middle-grade novel follows the adventures of Minerva “Chig” Kalpin in Depression-era Indiana.

Starred review Kirkus.

Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, NCSS-CBC, 2004.

Selected for Park Rapids, MN, Reads Together, March 2006.

Boston Globe Best Books of 2003.

Nominated for Young Hoosier Book Award, 2006-2007, intermediate (grades 4-6).


I Wonder As I Wander (Eerdmans, 2003) Illustrated by Ronald Himler.  Picture book delving into the mystery of Annie Morgan, the young girl who, in the midst of the Great Depression, sang for balladeer and composer John Jacob Niles a haunting Appalachian carol.

2005 Storytelling World Honor Book.

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards Finalist 2004.

Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year 2004.


Get Dressed (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publications, 2002) A title in the Small World series of photo-illustrated multi-cultural books for beginning and emergent readers.

Starred review Library Talk.

Reading guide for Get Dressed available at Minnesota Storytime, a project of the Minnesota Humanities Commission and Minnesota Library Association at www.minnesotastorytime.org.


Johnny Appleseed (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publications, 2001) Beginning reader biography of John Chapman, best known as Johnny Appleseed, a hero of the American frontier. Illustrated by Janice Lee Porter.

Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2002.


President of the Underground Railroad: A Story about Levi Coffin (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publications, 2001) Biography for middle-grade readers of the Indiana Quaker who was one of the most famous workers on the Underground Railroad. Illustrated by Ralph L. Ramstad.

Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2002.

Look for Riding to Washington

in 2008. ISBN: 9781585363247

Now Available!

ISBN: 9781585363247

To order copies, contact the publishers above or find your closest independent bookseller at Booksense.com