The fantastical attracts me as something not less real than the world but as a revelation of the world: the magic and beauty that underlies everything. This is pantheism, the belief that all parts of the universe are connected and deserve our awe and wonder. This is also social justice and how we treat all living things on the Earth we so remarkably and briefly share. As the author of some dozen published books, translated into nine languages, I also write about science and nature in adult nonfiction, as well as YA fantastical history and speculative fiction. Again, they are connected. I teach writing, and I love to write.
A deservedly best-selling and beloved book. Bold, unique, yet somehow deeply familiar. In Munich, Germany, 1939, a foster girl waits out the war, finding bedraggled hope in the books she steals and shares with the Jewish man living in her foster parents’ basement. Death tells the story. And Death quickly, strangely, remarkably becomes a sympathetic character. The girl’s connection to books—her need to get outside the confines of her life—feels completely real. We have felt this way, too. What I particularly loved was the complexity and depth of even minor characters. A German townswoman might be both kind and unkind. A child both loveable and selfish.
'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic . . . masterfully told. . . but also a wonderful page-turner' Guardian 'Brilliant and hugely ambitious' New York Times 'Extraordinary' Telegraph ___
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
A fast-moving plot, poignant drama, wonderful historical details. In Philadelphia, 1793, people first deny that yellow fever is back in town after a thirty-year absence. They try to blame the “dirty refugees” coming in by boat. No one wants their world to be suddenly overthrown like this, their lives torn apart, their parents and children and friends dying. But that kind of change is always possible and always pertinent. Fever 1793 brings this reality to life, with a completely believable main character and compelling verisimilitude.
Two Black teenagers in New York are thrown back in time to the Civil War era. Suddenly the similarities and differences of what it means to be Black in America are also thrown into relief, past and present both converging and clashing. Genna is our first-person narrator, and through her, we live fully in two worlds—one in which she struggles to go to college and leave behind the dangers of her Brooklyn neighborhood and one in which she struggles to stay alive in a volatile society which offers little support to the poor and vulnerable of any race.
"Although there is plenty of history embedded in the novel, A Wish After Midnight is written with a lyrical grace that many authors of what passes for adult literature would envy." -Paula L. Woods, The Defenders Online
"Zetta Elliott's time travel novel A Wish After Midnight is a bit of a revelation...It's vivid, violent, and impressive history." -Colleen Mondor, Bookslut
Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time. Facing the perilous realities of Civil War-era Brooklyn, Genna…
A fresh approach, a strong character who is still open and vulnerable. This multiple-award-winning alternate history of women astronauts is set in a very realistic 1950s, with telling scenes and reflections about the treatment of Blacks and women. After a meteor strikes the Earth and warms the atmosphere, there’s a similar resonance re the urgency of global warming. This novel is at the adult edge of Young Adult, with some sex scenes and a certain glorification of drinking—both also very 1950s, especially among test pilots and astronauts. (Full disclosure: my own father was a test pilot who crashed in the X-2 in 1956.)
A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth's efforts to colonize space, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for a much larger share of humanity to take part.
One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition's attempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots…
Richly detailed, inspirational, but not at all saccharine. This story of a young girl in a farm labor camp during the Great Depression has all the elements of a reverse fairytale. Esperanza enjoys the privileges of a Mexican “princess” until her wealthy family is forced into the drudgery of migrant work in California. A labor strike adds drama and punch. This book is at the young edge of Young Adult, showing the tremendous range of this genre—which, really, can and should be read by everyone.
Esperanza Rising joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!
Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike…
In 1528, the real-life conquistador Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked in the New World where he lived for eight years as a slave, trader, and medicine man. In this award-winning and lyrical historical fantasy, the adventurer takes his young daughter Teresa from her home to walk with him in search of Spanish outposts. But life there is not what Teresa’s father had promised. As a kitchen servant for a Spanish official, Teresa grows up estranged from the magic she knew as a child, when she could speak to the earth and listen to animals. When an epidemic devastates the area, the sixteen-year-old sets off through a land stalked by Plague: smallpox, measles, typhus, scarlet fever. She befriends a were-jaguar and abandoned warhorse. As they search for their place in the New World, Teresa must travel farther and deeper than she had ever imagined.
When I was nine years old, my first poem was ‘published’ in my elementary school’s annual creative writing booklet. It was such a thrill to see my poem in print and to know lots of people would be reading it. I was hooked on writing, but it would be many, many years before I was published again. While I know it’s never too late to publish a book, I regret how long I waited. Young writers, don’t be afraid to go for it and don’t ever feel you’re not old enough for your words to matter. Readers need your unique, fresh vision.
Constance is a wild, stubborn young girl growing up poor in a small industrial town in the late 1800's. Beneath her thread-worn exterior beats the heart of a dreamer and a wordsmith. But at age twelve, she’s orphaned. Running away to join the circus—like kids do in adventure books—seems like such a brilliant idea…or is it?
"Flight to Brassbright appeals to my inner child's desire for adventure and independence as well as my (mostly) grown-up desire for really well-written stories that capture my imagination and hold my attention." - Tricia, Amazon Reviewer
"...well plotted with a likable protagonist...upbeat with…
Constance is a wild, stubborn young girl growing up poor in a small industrial town in the late 1800's. Beneath her thread-worn exterior beats the heart of a dreamer and a wordsmith. But at age twelve, she’s orphaned. Running away to join the circus—like kids do in adventure books—seems like such a brilliant idea… or is it?
