Esme Raji Codell
First famous for her bestselling tell-all diary of her first year of teaching in a Chicago Public School, Educating Esme, and her landmark resource guide, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, Esme Raji Codell turned her talents to writing multicultural books for intermediate readers. Her novel Sahara Special has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, was a # 1 Booksense 76 pick and won the International Reading Association Children's Book Award for Intermediate Fiction. Esme Raji Codell is the author of several other books for children that have earned praise and a strong and lively fan base: her childhood memoir Sing a Song of Tuna Fish is a perennial favorite for teaching children to journal, Diary of a Fairy Godmother is a fairy-tale tell-all that leads readers to make their own wishes come true, and Hanukkah Shmanukkah gives Dickens' classic a fresh twist. The anticipated companion novel to Sahara Special, titled Vive la Paris, was the first novel featuring an African-American protagonist to win a Sydney Taylor honor.
Funny and inspiring, a visit from Esme Raji Codell is an author visit children will never forget. Let Esme invigorate children to value and see the magic of their own real life stories.
