Topic of the Week: Children’s Literature April 26, 2009

Topic of the Week for April 27-May 1, 2009:
Reading to motivate and inspire children

Susan Taylor Brown

We’re going to chat about the impact of reading to a child’s imagination and development this week. Joining us as guest host on Friday will be Susan Taylor Brown. Susan is the author of the award winning middle grade verse novel Hugging the Rock, (2007 Notable Children’s Book, ALA, VOYA magazine’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers, The Best Children’s Books of the Year Selection, Bank Street College of Education, and Notable Children’s Book in the English Language Arts, Realistic Fiction, NCTE.) She is also the author of the picture books Oliver’s Must-Do List and Can I Pray With My Eyes Open?, and the non-fiction book Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom. Susan has published 43 books for the educational market and more than 200 of Susan’s articles and stories have appeared in magazines for children and adults.

Susan has been the recipient of several grants from Arts Council Silicon Valley which allowed her to be the Writer-in-Residence for the San Jose Alternative Schools At-Risk program and to teach poetry to incarcerated teens and has served on the faculty for the Highlights Foundation Chautauqua Conference. She is a former newspaper columnist for the New Orleans Times Picayune and past instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature.

In addition to writing, Susan does motivational speaking and leads creativity workshops for writers and readers of all ages. She blogs about the writing life at Susan Writes.

Susan lives in San Jose, Calif. with her husband, Erik, her German Shepherd Cassie, and over 8,000 books. When she’s not writing or reading, she spends her time training Cassie for her work as a therapy dog and working in her native plant garden.