About Me

PERSONAL

I love to cook (and eat). I eat mostly plants. (I am vegetarian, mostly vegan. Or as my friend Rebecca says, Veganish.) Feel free to ask me more about this! (Or anything.)

I am from Pennsylvania, but I’ve lived in New York city since 2005. We are lucky enough to have a terrace garden.

I love to walk, and NYC is a perfect place for walking!

I take my dog Zuzu to the park every morning.  We both love our mornings together—me for the exercise and conversations with my friends, Zuzu for the treats and chasing the ball. Zuzu’s favorite object in the world is a ball. (Oh, wait, this is about me, not Zuzu.)

I also walk around New York City without Zuzu and often with my husband or a friend. I love to people-watch, and as you can imagine, the city has some great people watching! I also enjoy hiking in the woods, and walking on country roads here and far away.

Benjamin and me; Katie and her father, Bob, on a family trip in Scotland

But I do spend much of my day every day sitting at my desk, writing and researching.

I write mostly about people–and dogs. I’ve always been a people person and I’ve always loved dogs. I loved reading and hearing stories, from the time I was a little girl in Allentown, PA. My favorite book growing up was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. I think it’s still my favorite. I also loved a series of nonfiction books What is….? Below is the one I remember best.

I grew up as the only child of my parents’ marriage, but I did have a big sister and brother from my mom’s first marriage. Linnie got married when I was four, and Phil when I was eight.  I first became an aunt when I was five years old, so my five nieces were like my little sisters. Below is a very old and faded photo of me reading a book to my oldest niece, Karen.

I graduated from William Allen High School, where I worked on the school newspaper, The Canary. My senior year a friend and I were co-editors. But… we also did something very rebellious.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately (probably because of Emma Goldman). The newspaper staff was angry at the principal, who had censored our editorial against funding for a new gym rather than for the library and books. We were so angry he wouldn’t let us print it that we decided to publish an underground newspaper. We included the editorial—and a lot of complaints about the principal. We named the newspaper Birdsh*t. Emma would have written and spoken out; I wasn’t as gutsy back then. (Though I always wanted to be!)

When it was ready to be printed,  I snuck into the teacher’s lounge, said hello to my English teacher and a few others, and then nonchalantly made copies of Birdsh*t. (I guess I was kind of gutsy…)

At the end of the day, friends of ours passed out copies—but most of the papers were confiscated by the principal and vice principal. We were scared. Every time the phone rang at home, I was terrified, because  everyone else who was involved got called into the principal’s office. Everyone BUT NOT ME!  I was a “good girl.”  Or so they thought. I was never suspected. But it was my idea and I was the ringleader.  I confess it now.

Unfortunately, that was the only issue of Birdsh*t.  Maybe that was a good thing? At the time I had a lot of fear and some guilt. Now I wish I had done more!

But I was ready to move on. That year I was accepted to  Brown University. I graduated in 1980 with a degree in religious studies.  After college I went to work for Moment Magazine, and two weeks later I met the man who would become my husband, Jonathan Weiner. He is a writer and a professor.

My second job out of college was working for Scholastic News, in New York City. That’s where I learned how to write for kids—and that I loved it!

I wrote my first children’s book, Into the Night (illustrated by Melissa Sweet) when my oldest son was a toddler.