Pegi Deitz Shea

Image rights: PM Press

Abe In Arms isbn: 9781604863857 (EPUB) 9781604863864 (MOBI) formats: epub mobi published: 06/2010 pages: 172 price: 7.90 euros

Having presented at more than 350 schools, libraries and conferences, Ms. Shea writes fiction and poetry as well as nonfiction for all ages. Her books work across the curriculum and often explore the difficult lives of war refugees, immigrants, child laborers, and historical figures. Her first novel for Young Adults, Abe in Arms, (PM Press/ReachAndTeach) about a Liberian boy soldier, will be released June 1, 2010. Additional books include Ten Mice for Tet, The Carpet Boy’s Gift and Patience Wright: America’s First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy, and have been made Notables by the International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Children’s Book Council/National Council for the Social Studies, Bank Street College, New York Public Library and other organizations. Tangled Threads, the middle-grade novel sequel to The Whispering Cloth, won the 2004 Connecticut Book Award for Children’s Literature, and was a Junior Library Guild selection.

Shea’s latest book, Noah Webster: Weaver of Words (Boyds Mills Press, 2009) has already been named a JLG selection, and an Orbis Pictus Honor Book by NCTE for one of the six top nonfiction releases of 2009. In the Fall, Clarion Books will release The Taxing Case of the Cows: A True Story About Suffrage. Co-authored with Iris Van Rynbach, the book is being illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully. Ms. Shea is currently writing a new YA novel, Snake Boy, Sister Spy, which is based on her aunt and uncle’s teen Resistance exploits during WWII.

Ms. Shea teaches Children’s Literature, and Writing Books for Children at the University of Connecticut, and Writing for Children and Teenagers through the Institute of Children’s Literature.