Women Who Changed the World – Book Give-Away

Laurie Calkhoven has agreed to offer her new book to one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave a comment to get in the running. Reblog, or tweet, or talk about it on facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you did to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you before drawing the winners on Christmas Eve and announcing the winner on Christmas Day.

Laurie Calkhoven’s Journey to Publication and Description of Book:

WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD grew out of author visits to schools in the tri-state area. I had written a book for Scholastic Nonfiction group called I GREW UP TO BE PRESIDENT.  The book was popular with teachers and with students and often generated a lot of questions on my visits.  Kids loved hearing about the presidents’ childhoods as well as what they achieved in office, and the odd wacky story (Taft getting stuck in the bathtub, John Quincy Adams’ skinny-dipping in the Potomac) was welcome too. I made a point of telling them that presidents had all started out as ordinary boys who grew up to be extraordinary, and that they had the same opportunity.  Every time I talked about it, I mentioned that one day there was going to be a girl in that book.

I got tired of waiting. Why not write a book about ordinary girls who grew up to be extraordinary, I thought. And so I did.  I put together a proposal and sent it to my editor at Scholastic, and happily she and her colleagues liked the idea as much as I did. Beginning with Pocahontas and taking us all the way through to Misty Copeland, WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD is about 50 influential and inspiring American women who did just that—change the world.

I can’t wait to share this one with students, too.

Laurie Calkhoven has always loved books and reading. When she got her first library card and was set free among the picture books, she wanted to be a librarian. Later she learned that that were actual people who created those magical books on the shelves, and she decided to be one of them. After a twenty-year career in book publishing, she did! In addition to her nonfiction, Laurie has written five novels for American Girl and historical action/adventure novels for her own series, Boys of Wartime. She lives in New York City and can frequently be found at the library.

Congratulations Laurie!

Talk Tomorrow,

Kathy