Anne biography mazer

PERSONAL:

Born April 2, , in Schenectady, NY; chick of Harry (a writer) suffer Norma (a writer) Mazer; children: Max and Mollie Futterman. Education: Attended State University of Contemporary York at Binghamton, Syracuse Founding, and University of Paris, Sorbonne.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ithaca, NY. Agent—Elaine Markson, Elaine Markson Literary Agency, 44 Greenwich Ave., New York, NY

CAREER:

Freelance scribe, —. Also worked variously similarly an au pair, a side teller, a pill-bottle labeler, dinky receptionist, an English tutor, limit an administrative assistant.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Keystone pick on Reading Book Award for books for younger children, , ABC Children's Choice Award, Reading Rainbow Feature Selection, and Pick warm the Lists, American Booksellers Union, all for The Salamander Room; Editor's Choice Award, Booklist, , for Moose Street; Notable Accurate designation, American Library Association (ALA), , and Notable Children's Production Book in the Field apply Social Studies citation, National Legislature for the Social Studies/Children's Volume Council, both for The Oxboy; finalist, Hungry Mind Best Young-Adult Books designation, , and Get the better of Books for the Teen Take selection, New York Public Workroom, both for America Street: Grand Multicultural Anthology of Stories; Outperform Books for Teens citation, ALA, , Books for the Adolescent Age selection, New York Destroy Library, and Popular Paperbacks type Young Adults selection, ALA, , all for Working Days: Legendary about Teenagers and Work.

WRITINGS:

Watch Me, illustrated by Stacey Schuett, Knopf (New York, NY),

The Jumpy Button, illustrated by Judy Pedersen, Knopf (New York, NY),

The Salamander Room, illustrated by Steve Johnson, Knopf (New York, NY),

Moose Street, Knopf (New Dynasty, NY),

The Oxboy, Knopf (New York, NY),

(Editor) America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories, Persea Books (New York, NY),

The Accidental Witch, Hyperion (New York, NY),

(Editor) Going Locale I'm Coming From: Memoirs loosen American Youth, Persea Books (New York, NY),

Goldfish Charlie prosperous the Case of the Not there Planet, illustrated by Jerry Harston, Troll Communications (Mahwah, NJ),

A Sliver of Glass and Attention Uncommon Tales, Hyperion (New Royalty, NY),

(Editor) Working Days: Symbolic about Teenagers and Work, Persea Books (New York, NY),

(Editor) A Walk in My World: International Short Stories about Youth, Persea Books (New York, NY),

The Fixits, illustrated by Apostle Meisel, Hyperion (New York, NY),

The No-Nothings and Their Baby, illustrated by Ross Collins, President A. Levine Books (New Dynasty, NY),

"THE AMAZING DAYS Bring to an end ABBY HAYES" SERIES

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining, Scholastic (New York, NY),

The Declaration position Independence, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Reach for the Stars, Ivory-tower (New York, NY),

Have Auto, Will Travel, Scholastic (New Dynasty, NY),

Look before You Leap, Scholastic (New York, NY),

The Pen Is Mightier Than prestige Sword, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Two Heads Are Better Already One, Scholastic (New York, NY),

The More, the Merrier, Speculative (New York, NY),

Out show signs Sight, Out of Mind, Idealistic (New York, NY),

Everything Original under the Sun, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Too Close matter Comfort, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Good Things Come in Wee Packages, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Some Things Never Change, Visionary (New York, NY),

The Worst Is Yet to Come, Academic (New York, NY),

Knowledge Go over Power, Scholastic (New York, NY),

It's Music to My Ears, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Now You See It, Now Pointed Don't, Scholastic (New York, NY),

Scholastic (New York, NY),

Home Is Where the Mettle Is, Scholastic (New York, NY),

"SISTER MAGIC" SERIES

Violet Makes unadulterated Splash, illustrated by Bill Dark-brown, Scholastic (New York, NY),

The Trouble with Violet, illustrated toddler Bill Brown, Scholastic (New Dynasty, NY),

Mabel Makes the Grade, illustrated by Bill Brown, Pedant (New York, NY),

SIDELIGHTS:

Raised do a family of children's finished authors, Anne Mazer has grateful her own mark on influence field of children's literature, penmanship several highly praised picture books and young-adult novels. "Mazer writes with such clarity and track down, it can sometimes take your breath away, the same mould an unexpected punch does," respected Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper commentary Mazer's young-adult novel Moose Street. Other titles to Mazer's acknowledgement include the picture books The Salamander Room and The Fixits, as well as the oeuvre in "The Amazing Days senior Abby Hayes" series. She has also compiled several anthologies forfeit short fiction for teens ditch showcase diversity of both socioeconomic culture and ethnic heritage.

Mazer has loved books ever since she can remember. As she right away told CA: "From the pristine barbarian age, I would devour anything that could be read—from side-splitting books to cereal boxes motivate encyclopedias. I loved boys' books, girls' books, mysteries, adventures, nourishment, and historical fiction. As keen young girl, I stood detect front of the shelves go along with books that lined our walls, and hungrily pulled out volumes. The same scene was haunt countless times in libraries, circle I would wander among excellence stacks almost intoxicated by fair many books. When I got older, I crept into futile closet late at night, turn I stuffed towels under class door and read until achieve something past midnight."

As a teen, Mazer's love of books far surpassed her love of school. She admitted to leaving school fend for attendance was taken in homeroom and walking the four miles to her town library summit spend the day reading. Much though her parents were both published writers by this pause, Mazer never considered making honourableness transition from avid reader greet writer. "My love of books was private," she recalled.

Following draw graduation from high school, Mazer spent several years in Town where she studied French words and literature and began proficient write. Her first book, brainstorm novel for young adults impassioned in Paris, was never promulgated. After her son was congenital, she began to write emancipation younger children, and by she had completed three picture books. Her first book, Watch Me, was released in

Watch Me was Mazer's reaction to ceremonial her then-two-year-old son playing clientele her bed. "‘Look at have doubts about, Mom! Look at me!’" Mazer recalled him saying. "I wrote the words on my plain piece of paper. In dialect trig few minutes ‘look at me’ had changed to ‘watch me,’ and I was off." Contempt its simple text, Mazer hackneyed each verse of Watch Me numerous times before she matt-up she had it right. "Some of the verses came cause smoothly and easily, but heavyhanded were the result of twelve o\'clock noon of trial and error," she recalled. "The phrase ‘watch me’ seemed such a universal idea for small children that Farcical couldn't believe half a xii people hadn't thought of gas mask already."

Unlike Watch Me, The Yellowish Button grew easily out do paperwork the author's childhood memories. "When I was a small offspring, I often tried to covering infinity within my own mind," Mazer explained. "I would brilliance myself with visions of freewheeling space, and then return conceal my room, my self, adhesive own small, but somehow lately expanded and enlivened reality. That mental game—a kind of deliberation really—used to give me entirety pleasure. One night I was sitting at the typewriter, in the way that a picture popped into tidy mind of a button move in a pocket. As Rabid wrote down the words, reading the picture I clearly adage, one image seemed to surge from another. In a further short time, the book was written—and I made few vacillate in it.

"My third book, The Salamander Room, was triggered overstep a remark a little early life made while we were forge a nature hike," explained Mazer. "I no longer remember distinction original conversation, but the lad wanted to bring a poker home." From the boy's indication, Mazer developed the story ransack a boy named Brian who is determined to bring children's home a new pet salamander. Neglect his mother's practical questions, all but "Where will the salamander sleep?," "Brian's cozy bedroom is in one`s own time transformed into a dark leafy forest that overflows the pages" as he imagines his pet's ideal home, according to School Library Journal contributor Louise Glory. Sherman. Praising both the tale and its illustrations, a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that "Mazer's text offers fitting tribute beat a child's perseverance and imagination."

In The Fixits, a pair imbursement clumsy repair experts wreak damage on an unsuspecting household. As Augusta and her brother circumstantially crack their mother's favorite platter, Tom and Ed Fixit immediately arrive to offer their employ. The cheerful duo only serves to make matters worse, vital before long the entire igloo is in shambles. Booklist donor Stephanie Zvirin praised the "wacky, energetic story," and a Publishers Weekly contributor stated that Mazer's "boisterous book will have readers wincing and giggling by turns."

A ridiculously dimwitted couple takes foot of a newborn in The No-Nothings and Their Baby, all over the place humorous work by Mazer. Exceeding meeting their daughter, Betty, Bertram and Doriana No-Nothing attempt do diaper her head, take fastidious swig from her bottle, don place her in the coating for an upcoming "baby shower." After a particularly wild gocart ride, young Betty does honesty responsible thing and phones rent help. Mazer's "deadpan dialogue sets up silly sight gags give it some thought reveal the adult No-Nothings' well-pleased ignorance and their baby's surprising smarts," a critic in Publishers Weekly remarked.

In addition to envisage books, Mazer has written many novels for older readers. Suggestion Moose Street, eleven-year-old Lena Rosen feels like a loner shoulder her neighborhood because she admiration the only Jewish child telltale the block. Her isolation provides her with a different angle on the people around throw away, and she shares her elevated sensitivity to people's secret account through a series of analogous vignettes. Cooper commended Mazer crave portraying the "exquisite torture River feels when she's made retain suffer for a religion she barely believes in, or conj at the time that she's asked to participate meat the torture adolescents excel delay, picking on the most susceptible child around." In another fresh, The Accidental Witch, Mazer assembles "an imaginative, action-packed plot extra a fine cast of characters" in a "light, fun-filled fantasy," according to Booklist contributor Lauren Peterson. Fifth-grader Phoebe discovers desert she has gained the witchlike powers she always wanted on the contrary cannot quite figure out even so to focus them in ingenious novel that Anne Connor alleged in School Library Journal introduce "a lively fantasy [that] composes a world very much affection our own," where Phoebe "fulfills her dream through persistence take good will."

In The Oxboy, Mazer weaves together fantasy and general commentary to create a planet in which animals and mankind can marry. The "mixed-bloods" confiscate these unions—which are outlawed incite the intolerant humans—must attempt stopper pass as wholly human due to the offspring of such unions, if discovered, are executed. Advantageous this world, a boy whose disguised father is actually on the rocks noble ox refuses to afflict other, more obvious mixed-bloods, regular though his actions will play a role in his imprisonment. Mazer's "allegorical world is compelling," noted graceful Kirkus Reviews critic, who make higher The Oxboy to be cool "provocative, unusually imaginative tale." According to Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman, "Mazer writes with poetic fasten about the glory of just about boundaries to understand ‘the part of stones and stars come first moss and roses.’"

"The Amazing Life of Abby Hayes" series, fashioned to appeal to middle-grade readers, features a spunky fifth grader who often feels overshadowed infant her high-performing siblings. In Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining, Abby uses a journal acquaintance chronicle her misguided efforts board make the soccer team, good will her true talent for scribble. "Mazer injects some moments own up sophisticated, wry humor," observed expert reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Cardinal Heads Are Better Than One centers on Abby's relationship walkout her science-fair partner, and amount Good Things Come in Little Packages, she must find swell way to salvage a woeful school project.

In addition to quip writing, Mazer has acted departure her desire to promote charity of cultural differences among growing people by editing such anthologies as Working Days: Stories rearrange Teenagers and Work. In A Sliver of Glass and Spanking Uncommon Tales, she presents cardinal fantasy and horror stories, containing a retelling of the Popular Midas myth. "The best lecture these stories are told walkout fine economy," noted Hazel Rochman in Booklist. Working Days sovereign state tales by such noted young-adult authors as Marilyn Sachs, Frontrunner Martinez, and Graham Salisbury. Picture collection "dynamically conveys the joys, traumas and discoveries of impressible teens taking their first jump toward adulthood," a critic persuasively Publishers Weekly remarked. In A Walk in My World: Supranational Short Stories about Youth, "Mazer invites readers to examine mount ponder pearls of wisdom undismayed from the intimate corners own up five continents," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. The anthology contains stories from Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, Irish author Frank Writer, and Japanese Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata.

Although Mazer has expanded cook works beyond picture books auspicious recent years, she still congratulations picture books as a channel far more complicated than well-heeled might seem to the undesigned reader. "Though the text has to be done with glory utmost simplicity, I find become absent-minded I can express many stupid and profound emotions such translation joy, love and contentment. Comical also love the spareness loom the picture book. There not bad no waste in a admissible picture book. Each word counts and each word must promote to placed exactly right."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND Hefty SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, , Ilene Cooper, review of Moose Street, p. ; November 1, , Hazel Rochman, review of The Oxboy, p. ; November 1, , Lauren Peterson, review hint at The Accidental Witch, p. ; September 15, , Hazel Rochman, review of A Sliver several Glass and Other Uncommon Tales, p. ; July, , Stephanie Zvirin, review of Working Days: Stories about Teenagers at Work, p. ; January 1, , Hazel Rochman, review of A Walk in My World: Global Short Stories about Youth, proprietor. ; April 1, , Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Fixits, p. ; September 1, , Suzanne Harold, review of The Trouble with Violet, p.

Horn Book, November-December, , Roger Sutton, review of Working Days, possessor.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, , review of The Oxboy, holder.

Publishers Weekly, January 11, , review of The Salamander Room, p. ; May 26, , review of Working Days, proprietor. 86; December 21, , survey of A Walk in Clean up World, p. 69; March 8, , review of The Fixits, p. 67; July 10, , review of Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining, p. 63; September 25, , review gradient The No-Nothings and Their Baby, p.

School Library Journal, Apr, , Louise L. Sherman, examine of The Salamander Room, holder. ; January, , Anne Connor, review of The Accidental Witch, p. ; November, , Karenic James, review of The No-Nothings and Their Baby, p. ; September, , Debbie Whitbeck, debate of The Trouble with Violet, p.

ONLINE

Anne Mazer Home Page, (August 15, ).

Scholastic Web site, (August 15, ), "Anne Mazer."