Biography
I was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, a quick bus ride away from New York City. The city's skyline glistened like Oz from the town's highest points, always beckoning me. By the time I was twenty-four, I had my own tiny apartment on the Upper West Side. Today I still live in the same neighborhood, halfway between Central Park and Riverside Park, in a somewhat-larger apartment, where I brought up my two children.
I grew up in a multi-generational home, in a big old house with my two younger siblings, my parents, my maternal grandparents and five succeeding boxers, each one named Ducat. Both my mother and father had been born and raised in Poland, and were forced to leave at the start of World War II. Polish was the language of the house, where we practiced many Polish traditions and ate many Polish foods.
From the moment I learned to read, I loved nothing more. My strongest childhood memory is being curled up in my favorite chair in the living room with a book, my father lying on the couch next to me, with his book. It seemed only natural to me that I should create what I so love. I can't remember a day of my life when I didn't believe I was, and would always be, a writer.
I studied French, the classics and comparative literature at Brown University and then, more informally, in Aix-en-Provence, France, for a year. I returned home and started a career in publishing. I have been writing, editing and publishing articles, book reviews, magazines and books ever since. In 2008 I became a regular children's book reviewer for Publishers Weekly magazine; I report on children's book events and interview children's book authors and illustrators for the magazine, as well. I've also been lucky enough to be a part of several school communities in New York, working in their libraries and teaching writing, reading and even--briefly, and to my astonishment--second-grade math.
Selected Articles and Book Reviews
The Lost Year: A Book Re-Shaped by Current Events Publishers Weekly, December 6, 2022
Q&A with Misty Copeland, Publishers Weekly, November 2, 2021
Samira Ahmed: Telling the Stories of Revolutionary Girls, Publishers Weekly, July 16, 2021
Cynthia Leitich Smith: Lifting Up Native American Voices, Publishers Weekly, February 12, 2021
Darcie Little Badger: Fall 2020 Flying Starts, Publishers Weekly, December 18, 2020
Q&A with Daniel Nayeri, Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2020
Q&A with Linda Sue Park, Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2020
The 100th Anniversary of Madeleine L'Engle's Death Finds Her Legacy Thriving,Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2018
Q&A with Gabi Swiatkowska, Publishers Weekly, April 29, 2014
'Firebird' Lands on the Page, from ABT Soloist Misty Copeland, Publishers Weekly, September 4, 2014
From African Orphanage to the International Stage: A Dancer Recounts Her Journey, Publishers Weekly, September 18, 2014
Lost Love: Rediscovered Madeleine L'Engle Novel Arrives, Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2008
Good Luck Charms: Book Review
The New York Times Book Review, June 16, 2013
A Child of the Blacklist Becomes a Teenage Spy: Book Review
The New York Times Book Review, October 16, 2011
Cup Runneth Over: Book Review
The New York Times Book Review, March 13, 2009
Toy Stories: Book Review
The New York Times Book Review, December 12, 2007