Who am I?
I’m an American author who lived three years in a backyard tiny house with my family: husband, two young children, and a part-time dog. We wanted to live a bigger life, focused on our favorite activities and most important relationships. I wrote this book during the first spring of COVID-19, partly as a way to record my family’s experience weathering a pandemic in under 300 square feet, and partly as a way to explore the ways that children can be resourceful when life gives them a pinch. I've been a writer for most of my life, and I love to teach writing. Ark is my first middle-grade novel, and my lucky thirteenth book to publish!
Elisabeth's book list on living big in small spaces
Why did Elisabeth love this book?
Anne was thirteen years old when she received this diary as a birthday gift, and she used her diary (which she calls “Dear Kitty”) to record her life in the Secret Annex, hiding with her family from the Nazis.
I used an epigraph for it in my book: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” This book offers a nightmarish, true portrait of life secreted away from the constant risk of harm and death. But shining through the terror is Anne’s unstoppable hope: her belief that people are good at heart.
10 authors picked Anne Frank as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
With 30 per cent more material than previous editions, this new contemporary and fully anglicized translation gives the reader a deeper insight into Anne's world. Publication of the unabridged Definitive Edition on Penguin Audiobook, read by Helena Bonham-Carter, coincides.
