SANDY ASHER
Variety and quality characterize Sandy’s work, which includes twenty-five books, among them the award-winning Too Many Frogs! and its companion books What a Party! and Here Comes Gosling; more than three dozen plays; and over two hundred articles, stories, and poems published in magazines. Her best-known play, A Woman Called Truth, has been produced by more than three hundred school, community, and professional groups in the United States and Canada. Among her playwriting honors are an NEA fellowship grant and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Charlotte Chorpenning Award for a distinguished body of work in theater for young audiences. She’s also the editor of five collections of fiction, including With All My Heart, With All My Mind: Thirteen Stories About Growing Up Jewish, winner of the 1999 National Jewish Book Award in children’s literature, and her latest, Writing It Right: How Successful Children’s Authors Revise and Sell Their Stories. A frequent guest speaker at conferences and schools, Sandy has served as writer-in-residence at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, and has traveled from Alaska to Florida visiting schools and teaching writing workshop for people of all ages. Sandy and her husband, Harvey, now live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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KENT L. BROWN JR.
Kent is the executive director of the Highlights Foundation, Inc. He is editor in chief emeritus of Highlights for Children, Inc., and the former publisher of Boyds Mills Press, the trade division of Highlights which he co founded in 1990. He serves Highlights for Children, Inc. as a director. A past president of the Educational Press Association of America, Kent has served on the publications committee of the International Reading Association and is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the National Press Club.

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CHRISTINE FRENCH CLARK
Chris is the editor in chief of Highlights and Highlights High Five, responsible for the magazines in all their formats, including HighlightsKids.com, an award-winning Web site for kids. Her twenty-plus-year career in children’s publishing includes stints as editor of Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine, Turtle, Jack and Jill, and Children’s Digest. She has also written more than one hundred stories, poems, and lesson segments.

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FLOYD COOPER
Floyd has illustrated more than seventy books, many of them for such award-winning authors as Virginia Hamilton, Eloise Greenfield, and Patricia McKissack. His illustrations have won a number of honors, including the Coretta Scott King Honor Book recognition for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea (1994), Meet Danitra Brown (1995), and I Have Heard of a Land (1999). His most recent books include Jump!: from the Life of Michael Jordan (Philomel Books, 2004), Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color (Wordsong, 2007). The Blacker the Berry, written by Joyce Carol Thomas (Amistad, 2008), is the 2009 winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Read more about Floyd at www.floydcooper.com.

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REBECCA KAI DOTLICH
Rebecca is an accomplished children’s poet who has published numerous children's poetry and
picture books, including Over in the Pink House: New Jump Rope Rhymes; Lemonade Sun: And
Other Summer Poems; Sweet Dreams of the Wild: Poems for Bedtime; Mama Loves;
What Is Round?; and Away We Go! A frequent speaker at IRA and NCTE national and local
conferences, she has been a poetry advisor for Creative Classroom magazine, and a contributing
columnist for Teaching K–8. She has extensive experience speaking about poetry at various
venues, including the Buffalo Writing Conference and the Kentucky Bluegrass Writing Project.
Rebecca's poetry has been featured on Reading Rainbow and has been selected for numerous
anthologies and textbooks. In addition, she was profiled in Ladybug’s “Meet the Poet” pages. Reed more about Rebecca at www.RebeccaKaiDotlich.com.

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PATRICIA LEE GAUCH
Patti is vice president and editor at large of Philomel Books, as well as a respected author in her own right. She holds a doctorate in English literature and has taught children’s literature on the college level and reviewed for the New York Times. Patti has edited three Caldecott books, including Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr and So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George and David Small. She has worked with many well-known authors, including Patricia Polacco, Andrew Clements, and Loren Long.

Patti has written thirty-nine books for young readers, among them the highly acclaimed Thunder at Gettysburg; This Time, Tempe Wick?; and Christina Katerina and the Box. Her most recent title, The Knitting of Elizabeth Amelia, will be published in fall 2009.

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KIM T. GRISWELL
Kim is a senior editor for Highlights, Inc. and works with the Highlights Foundation and Boyds Mills Press. She served as the coordinating editor of Highlights for six years and Highlights High Five for a year. Her work in the children’s literature field has spanned the worlds of publishing and teaching, leading her to positions as senior editor of Bookbag magazine, book development manager for The Mailbox Book Company, a university and community college instructor, and a teacher with the Institute of Children’s Literature. She holds master’s degrees in teaching writing and in literature from Humboldt State University. She has taught writing workshops across the country on such topics as Focusing Nonfiction, Mystery Writing, Creating a Sense of Place, Writing for Children’s Magazines, Nature as Muse, and The Hero’s Journey. A prolific writer and committed editor, Kim has published more than two hundred short stories, articles, and columns. Her books include Carnivorous Plants, Nonfiction Reading Practice (Grade 3), and many stories in the four-book series, Short Short Stories for Reading Aloud. In 2008, Kim was awarded a two-month writing residency at the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology in Oregon. www.kimgriswell.com.

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ANDREW GUTELLE
Andrew is a writer, editor, and editorial consultant who has participated in the development of many publishing projects for children. He has written non-fiction books for many publishers, including Random House, Putnam, Workman, and Time-Life Books for Children. Andy received five Emmy nominations for his work on the television show Reading Rainbow.

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JUANITA HAVILL
Juanita has written seven picture books featuring the popular character Jamaica, most recently Jamaica Is Thankful. Among her nearly forty published books for children are picture books, middle-grade novels, early chapter books, a novel in verse, and a poetry collection. She has also written numerous articles for children and adults. Her historical novel, Eyes Like Willy’s, was selected as a Crown/Lamplighter Honor Book; Just Like a Baby was a Parents’ Choice Award Winner for spring 2009; and Grow, a Novel in Verse won the 2009 Carol D. Reiser Children’s Book Award and the 2009 Santa Monica Public Library Green Prize for Youth Fiction.

Havill leads writing workshops, visits schools to promote writing and literacy, and is currently an adjunct instructor at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.

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HELEN HEMPHILL
Hailed as a strong new voice in children’s literature by Kirkus Reviews, Helen is the author of the middle-grade novel Runaround (Front Street, 2007), named one of the year’s top ten romance books for youth by Booklist, and the critically acclaimed young-adult novel Long Gone Daddy (Front Street, 2006). She holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College and an MA in English literature from Belmont University. Helen is an education artist in residence for the Tennessee Arts Commission and a member of the Southern Artistry register at the Southern Arts Federation. Visit her on the Web at www.helenhemphill.com.

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PETER P. JACOBI
Peter is professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University and a consultant with magazines and corporations, helping CEOs, writers, and editors learn to express their ideas more effectively. His articles have appeared in World Book, The New York Times, Highlights, and others. His two guidebooks, The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It and Writing with Style: The News Story and the Feature, are standard reference sources for journalists.

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MARY-ALICE MOORE
Mary-Alice is the executive editor, New Product Development, at Highlights for Children, Inc. She manages the New Products production and staff at the Highlights editorial offices in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, developing new book products and programs for continuity book clubs, retail, and other trade channels. Previously, Mary-Alice held editorial management roles at HarperCollins and Scholastic, Inc. In her most recent role as vice president of New Product Development for Scholastic, she provided strategic oversight of all new product and new business development initiatives for Scholastic At Home. Early in her career, Mary-Alice managed a children’s bookshop. She later acquired hands-on experience with kids as a director of a child-care center for a community agency in Connecticut. In 2006, HarperCollins published her first children’s picture book, The Wheels on the School Bus.

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DONNA JO NAPOLI
Donna Jo writes for preschoolers through high-schoolers, in a variety of genres from contemporary humor to gothic psychodrama. Her award-winning books include her picture book, Albert, and her novels Daughter of Venice, Breath, Beast, North, Stones in Water, and The King of Mulberry Street. And, since this bio is for writers, she wants you to know she has made every mistake in the book and invented some. It took her fourteen long years of rejection letters to sell anything. So take courage—you never know when the phone will ring. Learn more about Donna Jo at www.donnajonapoli.com.

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STEPHEN ROXBURGH
Stephen has been involved with children’s books and publishing for more than thirty-five years, first as an academic, then as senior vice president and publisher, Books for Young Readers, at Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and as the president and publisher of Front Street Books, a small, independent press he founded on April 1, 1994. In 2004 Front Street was acquired by Boyds Mills Press, where Stephen was publisher until September 2008. In January, 2009, Stephen founded namelos llc, a publishing company based on a new business model.

Roxburgh has worked with such authors and artists as Felicia Bond, Nancy Eckholm Burkert, Brock Cole, Carolyn Coman, Roald Dahl, Donna Diamond, Madeleine L’Engle, Martine Leavitt, Patricia McCormick, An Na, Marilyn Nelson, Adam Rapp, Alvin Schwartz, George Selden, Uri Shulevitz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Garth Williams, and Margot Zemach.

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EILEEN SPINELLI
Eileen is an award-winning author and poet whose work includes the 1991 Christopher Award winner, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. Eileen has published over 30 books for children. Some of her recent titles include Silly Tilly, Princess Pig, Summerhouse Time, The Best Story and Miss Fox's Class Goes Green. Read more about Eileen at www.eileenspinelli.com.

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JERRY SPINELLI
With titles like Do the Funky Pickle, There’s A Girl in My Hammerlock, and Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush?, Jerry Spinelli has won the hearts of many young readers. His 1991 release Maniac Magee won the Newbery Medal, and his eighteenth book, Wringer, received a Newbery Honor. Jerry's historical fiction novel Milkweed (Knopf), has been called "stunning" by Kirkus Reviews. His latest books include the novels Eggs and Smiles to Go, and a picture book, My Daddy and Me. Check out Jerry's website at www.jerryspinelli.com.

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LOU WARYNCIA
Lou is the editorial director for Cobblestone Publishing and oversees the company's seven magazines (Cobblestone, Faces, Calliope, Odyssey, Footsteps, Dig, and AppleSeeds) and other publications. A self-professed magazine junkie, Lou's love of publishing began in the 7th grade when he began producing his own homegrown magazine. This led to journalism school at St. Bonaventure University. Altogether, Lou has worked for Cobblestone in some capacity for more than 20 years. Despite his long commute (100 rural miles a day, dozens of deer and moose sightings, and two collisions---one deer, one moose), Lou feels that he has one of the best jobs in the world.

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CLAY WINTERS
Clay, president of Boyds Mills Press, has been in publishing since 1960. Before coming to Boyds Mills Press, he was president of Putnam/Grosset Books for Young Readers, the children's book group of G.P. Putnam & Sons. Clay has taught the rudiments of publishing to aspiring writers and an entrepreneurial course in marketing for several different institutions.

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CAROLYN P. YODER
Carolyn is currently editor of Calkins Creek Books—the U.S. history imprint of Boyds Mills Press. Calkins Creek specializes in nonfiction and historical fiction picture books, chapter books, and novels. Carolyn is also the senior editor of history for Highlights for Children. She has written numerous articles on research and writing history for children and is the author of John Adams: The Writer; Becoming George Washington; and George Washington: The Writer. Carolyn spent a decade serving as the award-winning editor in chief of Cobblestone: The History Magazine for Young People; Calliope; Faces; and Odyssey, which led to her position as assistant publisher of Cobblestone Publishing, Inc., overseeing development of its book division. She has been a writer and an editor for the New Jersey Historical Society and the executive director of the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society. A free-lance editor and writer, she lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

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