Laurel Snyder
Graduate Adjunct - CLA
Biography
Laurel Snyder is the author of eight novels for children, including Hungry Jim, My Jasper June. Orphan Island, Bigger than a Bread Box, Penny Dreadful, Any Which Wall, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains OR The Search for a Suitable Princess, and Seven Stories Up. She has also published eleven picture books: Charlie and Mouse; Charlie and Mouse and Grumpy; The Forever Garden; The King of Too Many Things; Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova; Inside the Slidy Diner; Good night, laila tov; Nosh, Schlep, Schluff; The Longest Night; Camp Wonderful Wild; and Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher.
Her numerous awards include a National Book Award Nomination, Orbis Pictus Honor for Outstanding Nonfiction, Golden Kite Honor, Sydney Taylor Medal, and Maine Student Book Award. Her many selections and Best lists include Junior Library Guild, ILA Children’s Choices, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books, ABA’s Best Books for Young Readers, Amazon Best Book of the Month, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, PJ Library, ABC’s Best Books, Indie Next Pick, Smithsonian Notable, Georgia Center for the Book.
In addition to her books for children, Laurel has published two collections of poetry: Daphne & Jim: A Choose Your Own Adventure Biography in Verse (Burnside Review Press, 2005) and The Myth of the Simple Machines (No Tell Books, 2007). She also edited an anthology of nonfiction, Half/Life: Jew-ish Tales from Interfaith Homes (Soft Skull Press, 2006). A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a former Michener-Engle Fellow, Laurel has published work in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Utne Reader, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Revealer, Salon, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She is an occasional commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered.
Publications
My Jasper June
Walden Pond Press, 2019
Hungry Jim
Chronicle Books, 2019
The King of Too Many Things
Rodale Kids, 2017
The Forever Garden
Schwartz & Wade, 2017
Orphan Island
HarperCollins / Walden Pond Press, 2017
Charlie & Mouse
Chronicle Books, 2017
Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova
Chronicle Books, 2015
Seven Stories Up
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2014
Camp Wonderful Wild
Two Lions, 2013
The Longest Night: A Passover Story
Schwartz & Wade, 2013
Good night, laila tov
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2012
Bigger than a Bread Box
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2011
Nosh, Schlep, Schluff: Babyiddish (Board book)
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2011
Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher
Tricycle Press, 2010
Penny Dreadful
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010
Any Which Wall
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2009
Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2008
Five Children and It (Introduction)
Random House Books for Young Readers, 1902
The Myth of the Simple Machines
No Tell Books, 2007
Inside the Slidy Diner
Tricycle Press, 2008
BOOKS FOR ADULTS
The Myth of the Simple Machines
No Tell Books, 2007
Half/Life: Jew-ish Tales from Interfaith Homes, editor
Soft Skull Press, 2006
Daphne and Jim: a choose-your-own-adventure biography in verse
Burnside Review Press, 2005