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Audrey Penn started her career as a ballerina dancing with the National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and the Danny Diamond Dance Theatre. She also served as alignist and choreographer for the US Figure Skating Team in preparation for the Pan American Games (1973), and for the 1976 Olympic Gymnastics team.

In 1980 she became too ill with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) to continue dancing. Because she had done a lot of children’s theatre and children’s dance, and she has always enjoyed children’s literature, she turned to writing children’s books for her creative outlet. Her passionate advocacy for children continually molds her writing style and subject matter.

She has taken her one-woman educational program, The Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals, where she shapes and refines her story ideas in partnership with kids.

Ms. Penn lives with her husband, two youngest children, and two dogs in Olney, Maryland. Her married son and daughter-in-law, both in musical theatre, live in New York City. Her foster daughter lives in nearby Virginia.

Awards:

1975 Outstanding Young Women of America
1993 Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists (Chapter 11), by Jean Kennedy Smith and George Plimpton
2002 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature
2005 Mom of the Month (March), Parenting.com
2006 iParenting Media Awards

Book Titles:

Happy Apple Told Me (1975)
Blue Out Of Season (1984)
No Bones About Driftiss (1989)
The Kissing Hand (1994)
Sassafras (1997)
A.D.D. Not B.A.D. (2002)
Feathers And Fur (2003)
The Whistling Tree (2004)
A Pocket Full Of Kisses (2004)
Mystery At Blackbeard’s Cove (2004)
A Kiss Goodbye (2007)
Blackbeard And The Sandstone Pillar Part I:
When Lightning Strikes (2007)
Blackbeard And The Sandstone Pillar Part 2:The Gift of Silence (2007)

Upcoming Titles:

Chester Raccoon And The Big Bad Bully (2008)
Chester’s Change of Heart
Chester The Brave
The Miracle Jar