Hiiii!

Thanks for finding me. I’m the author of 16 books and "Dear Carol" at Girls' Life— for 30 years! My latest book is SPEED OF LIFE. My first, GIRLTALK: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You, came out in 1985…in a dozen languages. Photo proof! :-)

Click for VERY PERSONAL ESSAYS and HALL OF FAME PHOTOS. I’ve had 65+ Letters to the Editor in the New York Times on everything from Gabriel García Márquez to reading to kids to cats and inmates to pink with a wink. (Scroll.) I teach at the New York Society Library and am on XInstagram, Facebook, YouTube. See? I did a recent Zoom to Yale Women and may be running a workshop in Bordeaux, France. (May 11, 2025? Stay tuned!)

SPEED OF LIFE came straight from the heart, as I’ll tell you on TikTok. The first page. I was thrilled when Julia Alvarez said: “You won’t want to put it down.” The New York Times called it "perceptive, funny and moving... I laughed out loud and I teared up while reading this novel.” Heck, I teared up reading that! Stars from KirkusSchool Library Journal, PW, Booklist! YALSANew York Post: "Required Reading."  Amazon—and Audible, Libro.fm. For class or clubs: Speed of Life Discussion Guide.

AVA AND PIP, AVA AND TACO CAT, and AVA XOX are my funny diaries of a fifth grader who’s obsessed with palindromes. The New York Times says it’s "a love letter to language" and "perfectly captures the complexities of sisterhood." Click here.

Here’s one minute on how I got my start plus essays in Yale Alumni Magazine, Publishers Weekly, a Writer Experience podcast, and a recent interview.

Bio: Byram Hills HS in Armonk, NY; Twelfth grade in France (SYA); French/Spanish comp lit major at Yale (summa cum laude); M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury. TV: Today, The View, Oprah, Squawk BoxNY1, Twin Cities Live, CNN Español

The Diary of Melanie Martin (first of a four-book Knopf series) is about Melanie, 10, and her brother Matt the Brat, as they travel to Italy, Spain, Holland and host a friend in NYC. (I’ve been reading the Mondadori translation to buff up my italiano!)

Husband Rob Ackerman is a playwright and screenwriter who spent 25 years at SNL. The New Yorker liked Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson. His movie is Stargazer. Daughter Lizzi and her husband started a pancake business, Birch Benders: Today Show, Forbes. Daughter Emme? We just celebrated her wedding!

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Girltalk in lots of languages!

Book fairs are great because I get to meet my readers. This was one year ago in Chappaqua. See you 9/30/24?

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