Photo credit: Jessica harring
Brigit was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan and now lives with her husband, daughters, gecko, and dog in the lovely (and underrated!) land of New Jersey. Her debut middle grade novel, Worth a Thousand Words, was a Junior Library Guild selection as well as a Best Book of 2019 from The Bank Street College of Education. The Italian translation was the recipient of the Andersen Prize for Best Book for 12-14 year olds. Her sophomore novel, The Prettiest, received multiple starred reviews and was featured on several reading lists including Best Books of 2020 from the Chicago Public Library, Seventeen Magazine's 50 Books for Teens That You Won't Be Able to Put Down, and NBC News' 9 Books to Help Young Girls Build a Positive Image. Bank Street College of Education listed her third novel, Bright, as a Best Book for 12-14 year olds with the honor of outstanding merit. Her next middle grade novel, Banned Books, Crop Tops, & Other Bad Influences, is forthcoming in September, 2024. Additionally, Ms. Young has published short fiction and poetry in journals like The North American Review, 2 River View, Eclectica Magazine, and Burrow Press, among others. She has taught creative writing to kids of all ages in settings ranging from a library to a hospital.
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When Brigit isn't working, she loves hanging out with her kiddos, attending to her garden, cuddling her puppy, forcing her husband to do impressions, and singing at the top of her lungs when no one else is around.
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Picture books: Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis, Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel, The Mole Sisters by Roslyn Schwartz, Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon, Corduroy by Don Freeman, and The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
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Books for kids: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, New Kid by Jerry Craft, Matilda by Road Dahl, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, The Giver by Lois Lowry, When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
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Books for former kids: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor, Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
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Movies for Kids of All Ages: Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, A League of Their Own, Cinderella starring Brandy, Coco, Lilo and Stitch, Matilda the Musical, School of Rock, Spellbound, and Mrs. Doubtfire
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Poems: "somewhere i have never travelled" by e.e. cummings, "Instructions for Not Giving Up" by Ada Limon, "Brother" by Octavio Paz, "Her Kind" by Anne Sexton, "Sorrow Is Not My Name" by Ross Gay, "A Meeting" by Wendell Berry, "On Finding an Old Photograph" by Wendy Cope, "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines" by Pablo Neruda, "Song" by Adrienne Rich, "Poem" by Charles Simic, "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes, "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, "First Love" by Christine Garren, "The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass, "Childhood" by. Kate Baer, "In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver, ""Although the Wind" by Izumi Shikibu, "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong, "Advice" by Langston Hughes, and anything by Lucille Clifton
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Quotes:
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“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
- Mary Oliver
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"Be like a tree,
Let the dead leaves
Drop."
- Rumi
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"Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards."
- Vladimir Nabokov
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"Do not be daunted
by the enormity
of the world's grief.
Do justly, now.
Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated
to complete the work,
but neither are you free
to abandon it.
- The Talmud
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"Put a raisin in your navel and celebrate life!"
- Some guy I overheard one time at Pickerel Lake in Michigan
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