Registration is open for the 2022 Connecticut Book Awards!

When: October 23, 2022 | 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: Hartford Public Library

REGISTER HERE

Please note that clicking the button will bring you to another site for registration.

Q&A

COVID is still with us, although easing off a little, thank goodness. Did you have a favorite comfort genre to turn to when things were looking bleak? Something that lifted you away and to a different place for a while?

I had a hard time writing in the early months of the pandemic. But I know how to sew, so I found it very therapeutic to start sewing masks for all my friends and family. I also started painting again, something I hadn’t done for about fifteen years, and it was really great to realize I could get right back into it. I used to be a professional illustrator.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Librarians, archivists, archaeologists, scholars, and truth-seeking reporters—they’re the curious, diligent, committed researchers who uncover untold stories in the course of their day. My hope is that I can act as a conduit to tell those stories in ways that kids will understand and get excited about.

Who made reading important to you?

There may have been someone, but I don’t remember any one person in my life who introduced reading to me. I am pretty sure I found books on my own, and then couldn’t get enough of them. Someone had to have taken me to the library, or bought me sets of books, but with a child’s egocentric perspective, I probably didn’t pay much attention to that. I just wanted books, and somehow they were plentiful.

What’s the last book that had you reading past your bedtime?

Robert Caro’s biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker. I’d been meaning to read it for years, and finally did recently, and it’s a page-turner.

What book do you return to most often, whether passages or whole?

PG Wodehouse

How would you describe your books?

A mash-up of science and history, with a dash of humor.

Bio

Sarah Albee is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 150 books for kids, ranging from preschool through middle grade. Recent nonfiction titles have been Junior Library Guild, Bank Street College of Education Best Books, and Notable Social Studies Trade Books selections, as well as winners of Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Awards. She especially loves writing about topics where history and science connect.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Sarah worked at Children’s Television Workshop (producers of Sesame Street) for nine years.
She lives in Connecticut with her husband, who is a high school history teacher and administrator. They have three grown kids, and a dog named Rosie.

Synopsis

Explore the laws of physics, principles of chemistry, and wonders of biology in this collection of classic stories with a hands-on STEM twist.
From Snow White to Chicken Little to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves―read each story like a scientist!
• Determine if a glass slipper can withstand an evening of ballroom dancing.
• Explore the buoyancy of a magical frog.
• Test the power of blowing air on a house.
And so much more!
Find out what happens actually ever after!