SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Sophie’s Monster Goes to Shul
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://sandyasher.com/
CITY: Lancaster
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 323
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 16, 1942, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of Benjamin (a doctor) and Fanny Fenichel; married Harvey Asher (a professor), January 31, 1965; children: Benjamin, Emily.
EDUCATION:Attended University of Pennsylvania, 1960-62; Indiana University, B.A., 1964; graduate study in child development at University of Connecticut, 1973; Drury College (now Drury University), elementary education certificate, 1974.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Dramatist, children’s author, and educator. WFIU-Radio, Bloomington, IN, scriptwriter, 1963-64; Ball Associates (advertising agency), Philadelphia, PA, copywriter, 1964; Spectator, Bloomington, IN, drama critic, 1966-67; Drury University, Springfield, MO, instructor in creative writing, 1978-85, writer-in-residence, 1986-2003. Instructor, Institute of Children’s Literature, 1986-92; instructor in creative writing for children’s programs, including Summerscape, 1981-82, Artworks, 1982, and Step-Up, 1998-2002; cofounder and cohost Missouri Writes for Kids! (television program), 1997-2002; cofounder and managing director, Good Company Theatre for All Ages, 1997-2003; cofounder and director, America Writes for Kids and USA Plays for Kids, 1997-2010; America Theatre for the Very Young: A Digital Festival, founder and codirector, 2017—. Member of board of directors, National Association for Young Writers, 1989-91; Missouri Center for the Book, 1993-98, Writers Hall of Fame, 1994-98. Speaker at conferences, workshops, and schools.
MEMBER:American Alliance of Theatre and Education, Theatre for Young Audiences (U.S. chapter), Authors Guild, Dramatists Guild, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Missouri advisor, 1986-89; member of board of directors, 1989-97), Phi Beta Kappa.
AWARDS:Award of excellence, Festival of Missouri Women in the Arts, 1974, for Come Join the Circus; honorable mention, Unitarian Universalist Religious Arts Guild, 1975, for play Afterthoughts in Eden; creative writing fellowship grant in playwriting, National Endowment for the Arts, 1978, for God and a Woman (later A Woman Called Truth); first prize in one-act play contest, Little Theatre of Alexandria, 1983, and Street Players Theatre, 1989, for The Grand Canyon (later Sunday, Sunday); first prize, Children’s Musical Theater of Mobile contest, and first prize, Dubuque Fine Arts Players contest, both 1984, both for East of the Sun/West of the Moon; Mark Twain Award nomination, 1984, for Just like Jenny; Outstanding Books for Young Adults citation, University of Iowa, and Best Books citation, Child Study Association, both 1985, both for Missing Pieces; best new play of the season designation, Maxwell Anderson Playwriting Series, 1985-86, and Ellis Memorial Award finalist, Theatre Americana, 1988, both for Little Old Ladies in Tennis Shoes; first prize, Center Stage New Horizons contest, 1986, first prize, Mercyhurst College National Playwrights Showcase, 1986-87, and first prize, Unpublished Play Project of the American Alliance for Theatre in Education, 1987-88, all for God and a Woman; Iowa Teen Award nomination, and Young Hoosier Award nomination, both 1986-87, both for Things Are Seldom What They Seem; National Children’s Theatre Symposium playwriting awards, Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), 1987, for Prince Alexis and the Silver Saucer, 1989, for A Woman Called Truth, and 1995, for The Wolf and Its Shadows; Joseph Campbell Memorial Award, The Open Eye: New Stagings for Youth, 1991-92, and American Alliance of Theatre and Education (AATE) Distinguished Play Award, 1994, and Outstanding Play for Young Audiences designation, U.S. Center of the International Association of Theaters for Children and Young People, 1993, all for A Woman Called Truth; New Play Festival Award, Actors’ Guild of Lexington, 1992, for Sunday, Sunday; first prize, TADA! playwriting contest, 1991, and first prize, Choate Rosemary Hall Discovery playwriting contest, 1993, both for Dancing with Strangers; AATE Unpublished Play Project National Award, 1994, and IUPUI/Bonderman Award, 1995, both for The Wolf and Its Shadows; Kennedy Center New Visions/New Voices Forum selected play, 1995, and AATE Unpublished Plays Project National Award, 1996, both for Across the Plains; honorary life membership, Missouri Council for the Social Studies, 1998; Celebrate Literacy Award, International Reading Association, 1998-99; Charlotte Chorpenning Award for body of distinguished work in children’s theater, AATE, 1999; Pittsburgh One-Act Play Festival winner, 1999, for Thunder Mountain; IUPUI/Bonderman semi-finalist and AATE Unpublished Play Project National Award, both 1999, both for Joan of ARK 5; Jewish Library Association Pick of the Lists and National Jewish Book Award, both 1999, both for With All My Heart, with All My Mind; New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Playwriting fellowship, Children’s Theater Foundation of America, 1999; IUPUI/Bonderman Award, 2001, and Aurand Harris Playwriting Award, and AATE Distinguished Play Award, both 2003, all for In the Garden of the Selfish Giant; North Dakota Flicker Tale Award, 2006; Florida Reading Association Children’s Honor Book designation, 2006-07, and state master list nominations in NY, PA, SC, WY, MT, and GA, 2005-08, all for Too Many Frogs!; AATE Unpublished Play Project National Award, 2008, Purple Crayon Players PLAYground Festival selection, 2009, AATE Distinguished Play Award, 2011, all for Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends Story; Lancaster County Children’s Laureate, Lancaster Literary Guild, 2014-16.
WRITINGS
Contributor to publications, including Highlights for Children, Humpty Dumpty’s, and Weekly Reader.Contributor of plays to anthologies, including Center Stage, Harper (New York, NY), 1990; Theatre for Young Audiences: Twenty Great Plays for Children, St. Martin’s (New York, NY), 1998; Scenes & Monologues for Young Actors, Dramatic Publishing (Woodstock, IL), 1999; and Theatre for Children: Fifteen Classic Plays, St. Martin’s (New York, NY), 2005.
SIDELIGHTS
Sandy Asher, a playwright and children’s author, is probably best known for her young-adult novels and other prose works for young readers. Drawing many of the ideas and characters for her writings from her childhood memories, Asher has earned critical praise and numerous awards for novels such as Just like Jenny, Things Are Seldom What They Seem, and Everything Is Not Enough. Asher’s works “treat serious problems facing most teenagers—strains in parent-child or sibling relationships; confusions about sexuality; uncertainties about one’s place in the home, the school, or the community at large; emerging perceptions of change and loss,” observed Judith S. Baughman in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook. “Yet the dominant tone of each novel is comic, and its focus is not upon the problem addressed, the issue to be resolved, but instead upon the young person who is confronting it.”
In addition to her young-adult fiction, Asher has written numerous picture books, including Princess Bee and the Royal Good-Night Story and Too Many Frogs!, and she has edited works such as the award-winning With All My Heart, with All My Mind: Thirteen Stories about Growing up Jewish and Dude! Stories and Stuff for Boys. She also supports her fellow writers with Writing It Right: How Successful Children’s Authors Revise and Sell Their Stories. “My aim is to introduce all young readers to lots of different authors and genres,” Asher told Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy interviewer James Blasingame.
Asher was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For solace, Asher often retreated to the quiet of her bedroom, where she discovered the power of imagination, remarking in the Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS), “I learned early that inner space is worth exploring and that even when alone, you can find yourself in fascinating company.” She continued, “I made up poems and songs, stories and plays, to fill my fantasy world and entertain myself. I read whole volumes of the Book of Knowledge encyclopedia and pages at a time out of the dictionary, eager to know everything about everything. Little did I know what excellent training for a writer those solitary hours up in my room would prove to be.”
As Asher grew up, she developed interests in writing, drama, and dance, despite the concerns of her parents, who viewed marriage and family as a young woman’s most important focus. “I began creating plays in second grade at James G. Blaine Elementary School,” Asher explained in an autobiographical sketch appearing on her website. “That was my idea of ‘let’s pretend’—making up stories to be acted out, telling my friends where to stand, what to say, and when to say it. I guess they enjoyed it as much as I did, because we rehearsed a lot and performed for our class and, eventually, the entire school. My teachers were always encouraging.” “My second grade teacher, Mrs. Lomozoff … encouraged me to create and perform playlets with my classmates and sent us on tour through the school,” the author continued in an interview with Adam Szymkowicz on Szymkowicz’s website. “I am of a generation that was expected to grow up, get married, and raise children. Period. I did all that, and I’m glad. But my teachers, Mrs. Lomozoff and many who followed, helped me become so much more.”
As a teen Asher masked her typical adolescent discomfort with a sarcastic sense of humor. “Looking back now, I suspect potentially good friends were more afraid of my sharp tongue than I realized, and their gossipy chatter probably masked insecurities much like my own,” Asher wrote in SAAS. “This difference between surface impressions and inner vulnerability has been a rich area of exploration in all of my writing for young-adult readers. I hope those who find secondary school an unnatural habitat find comfort in my books, among people like themselves—and like me—struggling to make sense out of strange, difficult, and often painful situations.”
During her teen years, Asher pursued her career interests in ballet, the theater, and writing. She credits teachers and role models from books—Jo March of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women in particular—for her perseverance in pursuing the things she loved. As she remarked in SAAS, “Until I read Little Women, I had no idea that people got paid to do it. Jo March succeeded in making her dream come true. And that gave me hope. Information, a dream, a plan, and hope: books can provide all of that and more.”
After an eventful high school and college career that included performing in plays with La Salle College Masque and Indiana University Theatre, musicals on the traveling showboat, the Majestic, and ballet with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company, Asher graduated from Indiana University and married her husband, Harvey Asher. Within a span of several years, her parents and her grandparents died, and her husband’s job necessitated a move to Missouri. During these years she worked as a scriptwriter for a radio station, an advertising copywriter, and a drama critic for an alternative newspaper before having two children and beginning graduate studies in child development.
In 1969, a year after the birth of her second child, she began to write her first novel, Daughters of the Law, a story about a young girl trying to understand her Jewish heritage in light of her mother’s unexpressed but painful memories as a survivor of the Holocaust of World War II. As Asher became more familiar with her genre, she reworked the novel many times over the next ten years before its publication. During these years she also began to write the award-winning plays that she has seen produced throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and abroad.
Before she finalized Daughters of the Law, Asher wrote and published Summer Begins, a novel about an eighth-grade girl named Summer who submits an article to her school newspaper suggesting that the holiday celebrations at her school should include Buddhist and Jewish traditions along with the exclusively Christian ones currently observed. Summer finds herself the unwilling center of attention when the principal demands that she retract her article, and her teacher resigns in protest of this violation of Summer’s civil rights. Summer Begins raises important issues of censorship and religious freedom, but many critics noted that the book’s strength lies in its focus on Summer’s development toward maturity, related in invitingly human and often humorous terms. A Washington Post Book World reviewer commented that “Summer is a winningly self-aware thirteen-year-old and her reluctance to take on the heroine’s role is often very funny.”
In her 1982 novel, Just like Jenny, Asher explores the friendship between Stephie and Jenny, two talented young dancers. When they are both asked to audition for a semiprofessional dance group, Stephie, who is under pressure from her parents and envious of Jenny’s classic skills, decides that she is not good enough to try out. The resolution of Stephie’s loss of nerve, according to Judith S. Baughman in a Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1983 essay, entails lessons in “the nature of real friendship and the motivation underlying commitment to hard but fulfilling goals.” A Times Literary Supplement reviewer, while criticizing Just like Jenny for “relying on inevitable disappointments and triumphs,” commended Asher for her knowledge of teenagers, claiming that the author “knows about the dreams and aspirations of young people. … She understands also the stubborn crises of confidence which afflict adolescents who do not know how they compare in ability and maturity with others.”
In other novels Asher has continued to raise social issues while focusing on her adolescent characters’ personal development. In her award-winning 1983 book Things Are Seldom What They Seem, she examines the effect a teacher’s sexual abuse—and the silent response within the adult world to what he has done—has on some of his students. Baughman noted that the significant focus in this story is “how these complexly developed fourteen-and fifteen-year-olds deal with their discovery that things are seldom what they seem, that deceptions or misperceptions do undermine relationships.”
In Missing Pieces, noted Virginia Marr in a School Library Journal review, Asher “deals with such adolescent concerns as lack of communication within families, loss, loneliness and the constant need for emotional support.” Asher’s 1987 novel, Everything Is Not Enough, the story of a seventeen-year-old boy’s move toward independence, tackles the theme of violence against women in a similar manner. In this story, a supportive friendship arises between a young man and a female coworker at a restaurant when, together, they confront the fact that a friend is being beaten by her alcoholic boyfriend. And in her 1993 work Out of Here: A Senior Class Yearbook, Asher uses nine interconnected stories about a series of problems such as teen pregnancy, abusive parents, and alcoholism to highlight dilemmas faced by graduating seniors at a high school in a small town. “The cumulative effect,” School Library Journal reviewer Doris A. Fong concluded, “is an accurate portrayal of high school, with concerns and activities that give Asher’s work the texture of a yearbook.”
Asher includes other short fiction in the fiction anthologies she has edited for preteen and older readers. In With All My Heart, with All My Mind she joins with contributors Jacqueline Dembar, Phyllis Shalant, Eric Kimmel, and Susan Beth Pfeffer to introduce Jewish teens attempting to come to terms with adulthood as well as with their Jewish heritage. Stories range in time periods from Masada to World War II to the near future, but in each young men and women are presented with a conflict that involves the obligations of their faith and culture. Each story is followed by an interview with the author in which the story’s message is discussed. Similarly, writers Miriam Bat Ami, Bonny Becker, Patricia Calvert, and Donna Jo Napoli join Asher in contributing tales about young, independent-minded women to On Her Way. Stories range in focus from the realistic to the fantastic: in one tale a girl discovers a magical makeup that makes anyone who wears it popular, while in another, a new girl at school who is not as physically mature as others her age, is mistaken for a boy by her new classmates.
In School Library Journal Janet Hilbun explained that the “entertaining and engrossing” volume “celebrates growing up female as the protagonists tackle and embrace new experiences.” The critic also cited Asher’s selections as editor, noting that readers of the short fiction and verse collected in On Her Way are introduced to “likeable characters who learn valuable lessons on their journeys to womanhood.” Noting that some of the poems contain “sophisticated, challenging imagery,” Booklist reviewer Gillian Engberg felt that most selections are accessible to teen readers, “and many girls will recognize their own challenges” in the “accessible and often inspiring” stories.
A collection of stories, plays, personal narratives, and poems concerning the challenges of male adolescence, Dude!, coedited by Asher and David L. Harrison, contains eighteen works by Ron Koertge, Jane Yolen, and other esteemed writers. According to Blasingame, “one thing is true of every young man in the book: All are trying to figure out their place in the world and attempting to make the most of the families they are given.” Booklist contributor Shelle Rosenfeld observed that the selections “range from entertaining to challenging and offer an array of characters and experiences.” Noting that the anthology includes works by both male and female writers, Asher told Blasingame, “My experience has been that kids are comfortable with both points of view … if they’re left alone to make their choices. They relate to the human experience of the story, which is exactly what we authors intend.”
In the picture book Chicken Story Time (which Asher has also adapted as an interactive play), the author tells the story of how the popularity of a local library’s story hour gets out of control when barn fowl are added to the audience. At first, local children are joined in the library by a single chicken. So far, so good … the chicken and the children all enjoy the story and each other’s company. The next week, the situation begins to change. “As kids stream into the library, the chicken gives readers a knowing glance,” explained a Publishers Weekly reviewer. She is joined by several more feathered friends, who settle into the audience. However, “the next week, a larger crowd of children attend,” continued Luann Toth in School Library Journal, “along with a whole flock of chickens.” Chaos ensues. Chickens are roosting all over the library, and their clucking prevents the librarian from proceeding with the story. For their part, the kids take advantage of the breakdown of order to go on small rampages, leaving the librarian at a loss. “Then she has a brilliant idea,” wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews: “have each child read a different story to several chickens … and everyone loves storytime again.” “The creative solution also demonstrates just how great (and flexible!) a library can be for its patrons,” concluded Melissa McCleary, writing in Youth Services Book Review, “whether they are children or chickens.”
In addition to plays and novels for older readers, Asher has also written for the early elementary grades. Her picture book Princess Bee and the Royal Good-Night Story takes a lighthearted look at separation anxiety, a common plight of smaller children. Princess Bee cannot go to sleep when her mom, the queen, goes out of town. When Bee’s siblings attempt stories but come up short, the princess has to look within herself to solve the problem. In a review for Booklist, Julie Corsaro called the work a “soothing offering with potential for repeat late-night performances.”
Stella’s Dancing Days introduces a gray kitten named Stella, whose talent for dancing charms her human owners, as well as the family dog. However, as the kitten grows into a cat, she sets aside her dancing in favor of raising a litter of her own six kittens … dancers all, of course! Noting that the book will “please cat lovers and ballerinas of all ages,” Shawn Brommer wrote in School Library Journal that in this story about maturation, “Asher’s text has a natural, graceful rhythm.” The “cat’s-eye view reflected in the family members’ names”—Tall One, Gentle One, and Littlest One with the Loudest Voice are the children’s names—“is just one example of the light, precise language in this well-crafted picture book,” noted Booklist contributor Carolyn Phelan, while a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed Stella’s Dancing Days “a charmer.”
(0pen new)Jewish customs inform the plot of the 2024 picture book, Sophie’s Monster Goes to Shul. The titular monster speaks Yiddish and lives in Sophie’s closet. Now older, Sophie has stopped being afraid of the monster, and the monster is distraught about not having a job anymore. Sophie feels sorry for him and decides to help the monster find other things to do. Sophie initially suggests that the monster try spending time in the car, the kitchen, or outside, but none of those locations works out well for the monster. Finally, Sophie decides to bring the monster to the synagogue, or shul, she attends with her grandparents, Bubbe and Zayde. Sophie, Bubbe, and Zayde go to shul together every Sunday. The monster enjoys the positive feelings of the attendees and of Bubbe, in particular. He also has fun dancing and clapping along to the music that is played. The text specifies that the dances are Israeli and that the songs are traditional Jewish songs. The volume features illustrations by Alexandra Colombo in bright colors. Rebecca Kirshenbaum offered a favorable assessment of Sophie’s Monster Goes to Shul in School Library Journal. Kirshenbaum deemed it “recommended as a read-aloud for preschoolers and a warm introduction to one joyful aspect of Jewish life.”(close new)
Asher has enjoyed a successful collaboration with illustrator Keith Graves on a number of picture books, including Too Many Frogs! Centering on the relationship between quiet and polite Rabbit and gregarious Froggie, the tale concerns Rabbit’s efforts to enjoy a quiet night at home with a favorite book, a task made more difficult by Froggie’s frequent visits. Writing in School Library Journal, Linda M. Kenton described Too Many Frogs! as “a fun story that celebrates reading and standing up for oneself.” In What a Party!, Froggie refuses to go home after participating in a fantastic celebration for his grandfather’s birthday, and Rabbit devises a simple yet effective solution to the dilemma. “Parents should find the whole scenario entirely familiar,” A Kirkus Reviews critic stated. In a third title, Here Comes Gosling!, the multitalented Froggie helps to pacify a bawling baby goose. The work “effectively introduces the idea of dealing with frustrations in an amusing way,” Amy Lilien-Harper noted in School Library Journal.
Asher has also aided the efforts of budding authors by penning the companion nonfiction books Where Do You Get Your Ideas? Helping Young Writers Begin and Wild Words! How to Train Them to Tell Stories. These books, suited for children in grades three to eight, tackle the problems of how to begin writing and then how to edit stories to make them more effective. In Where Do You Get Your Ideas? chapters alternate between idea-generating activities and “stories behind the stories,” with quotes from popular children’s authors. Wild Words! gets more specific, offering advice on shaping plots and characters, then explaining the editing process that allows authors to “tame” words. “The examples,” commented Martha Rosen in School Library Journal, “are right on target, and the original writing samples by junior-and senior-high-school students provide interest and incentive for others who are trying to hone their writing skills.” Asher has also edited But That’s Another Story: Famous Authors Introduce Popular Genres, which includes adventure, suspense, horror, and science fiction stories, creating a book useful for “language arts teachers who have dreamed of an accessible collection of genre explanations, short stories, author interviews, and story commentaries all rolled into one pleasure-reading package,” according to Patti Sylvester Spencer in the Voice of Youth Advocates.
The role of the storyteller is essential to society, Asher believes. As she noted in SAAS, “Our stories define us, our place in society, and our experience of the world. They help us to reach within and without—across rooms, generations, borders, barriers, oceans and years.” She concluded, “Good times, bad times, happy times, sad times, all can be woven into our life-story tapestry.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Asher, Sandy, Where Do You Get Your Ideas? Helping Young Writers Begin, Walker (New York, NY), 1987.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1983, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1984.
Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 13, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1992.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 1986, review of Teddy Teabury’s Fabulous Fact, p. 1307; January 1, 1990, review of Wild Words!, p. 907; February 1, 1990, Julie Corsaro, review of Princess Bee and the Royal Good-Night Story, p. 1084; March 15, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, review of Stella’s Dancing Days, p. 1402; February 14, 2004, Gillian Engberg, review of On Her Way: Stories and Poems about Growing up Girl, p. 1057; April 1, 2005, Todd Morning, review of Too Many Frogs!, p. 1364; July 1, 2006, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Dude! Stories and Stuff for Boys, p. 53; February 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of What a Party!, p. 48.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February, 1981, review of Daughters of the Law, p. 106; September, 1982, review of Just like Jenny, p. 2; May, 1983, review of Things Are Seldom What They Seem, p. 162; June, 1984, review of Missing Pieces, p. 180; December, 1987, review of Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, p. 61; April, 2004, Karen Coats, review of On Her Way, p. 314; February, 2005, Timnah Card, review of Too Many Frogs!, p. 243.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, April, 2008, James Blasingame, review of Dude! Stories and Stuff for Boys, and interview with Hopkinson and David Harrison, p. 608.
Journal of Reading, February, 1990, Robert Small and Susan Murphy, “An Interview with Sandy Asher on the Art of Writing,” p. 390.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1987, review of Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, p. 921; December 15, 2003, review of On Her Way, p. 1445; December 15, 2004, review of Too Many Frogs!, p. 1197; June 1, 2006, review of Dude!, p. 568; December 15, 2006, review of What a Party!, p. 1263; April 1, 2009, review of Here Comes Gosling!; August 17, 2016, review of Chicken Story Time.
Publishers Weekly, February 13, 1987, review of Everything Is Not Enough, p. 94; June 14, 1993, review of Out of Here: A Senior Class Yearbook, p. 72; November 19, 1999, review of With All My Heart, with All My Mind, p. 69; February 26, 2001, review of Stella’s Dancing Days, p. 85; January 26, 2004, “On the Brink of Adulthood,” p. 255; October 10 2016, review of Chicken Story Time, p. 77.
School Library Journal, May, 1984, Virginia Marr, review of Missing Pieces, p. 86; August, 1987, review of Everything Is Not Enough, pp. 88-89; September, 1987, Cynthia Dobrez, review of Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, p. 184; December, 1989, Cindy Darling Codell, review of Teddy Teabury’s Peanutty Problems, p. 98; January, 1990, Martha Rosen, review of Wild Words! How to Train Them to Tell Stories, p. 110; March, 1990, p. 184; July, 1993, Doris A., Fong, review of Out of Here, p. 98; July, 1996; July, 2001, Shawn Brommer, review of Stella’s Dancing Days, p. 72; February, 2003, Ann W. Moore, review of Mexico, p. 127; March, 2003, Nancy A. Gifford, review of China, p. 214; March, 2004, Janet Hilbun, review of On Her Way, p. 224; March, 2005, Linda M. Kenton, review of Too Many Frogs!, p. 166; August, 2006, Coop Renner, review of Dude!, p. 113; February, 2007, Amy Lilien-Harper, review of What a Party!, p. 84; June, 2009, Amy Lilien-Harper, review of Here Comes Gosling!, p. 78; November, 2016, Luann Toth, review of Chicken Story Time, p. 66; April, 2024, Rebecca Kirshenbaum, review of Sophie Monster Goes to Shul, p. 120.
Times Literary Supplement, September 7, 1984, review of Just like Jenny, p. 1006.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 1984, review of Missing Pieces, p. 94; June, 1987, review of Everything Is Not Enough, p. 74; December, 1993, review of Out of Here, p. 286; August, 1996, Patti Sylvester Spencer, review of But That’s Another Story: Famous Authors Introduce Popular Genres, p. 176.
Washington Post Book World, July 11, 1982, review of Summer Begins, p. 12.
ONLINE
Adam Szymkowicz, http://aszym.blogspot.com/ (August 30, 2017), Adam Szymkowicz, “I Interview Playwrights Part 977: Sandy Asher.”
Dramatic Publishing Website, http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/ (May 1, 2010), “Sandra Fenichel Asher.”
Sandy Asher website, https://sandyasher.com (November 4, 2024).
Writers at Work, http://usawrites4kids.blogspot.com/ (December 5, 2017), author profile.
Youth Services Book Reviews, https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/ (December 3, 2016), Melissa McCleary, review of Chicken Story Time.
Bio
One of my happiest childhood memories is of the many hours I spent in the children’s reading room of the Free Library at Logan Square in Philadelphia, PA, where I grew up. Way back then, I thought there could be nothing more wonderful than to write a book someone would love as much as I loved my favorites. I still think so.
And I still love to visit libraries.
I began creating plays in second grade at James G. Blaine Elementary School. That was my idea of “let’s pretend” — making up stories to be acted out, telling my friends where to stand, what to say, and when to say it. I guess they enjoyed it as much as I did, because we rehearsed a lot and performed for our class and, eventually, the entire school. My teachers were always encouraging, even those I lampooned mercilessly in my script for the senior class play, “My Fair Bear,” at Germantown High. They let me graduate anyway.
My professional writing career began with the publication of poems in literary journals and stories, poems, and articles in children’s magazines, including Highlights for Children, Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine, and Weekly Reader. The playwriting continued, too, with several plays in Plays Magazine. My first book for young readers, SUMMER BEGINS, was published in 1980. Since then, I’ve written 25 more — YA novels, chapter books for middle schoolers, and picture books for the very young.
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EINE BOOK COVER
BALLET ONE COVER
Three of my most recent picture books are about Froggie and Rabbit — TOO MANY FROGS!, WHAT A PARTY!, and HERE COMES GOSLING! But I don’t always write about frogs and rabbits. My newest picture book, CHICKEN STORY TIME, was published by Dial Books for Young Readers — and it’s about children and chickens.
I’ve also brought one of my favorite chapter books back into print: TEDDY TEABURY’S FABULOUS FACT, inspired by the true story of our gerbil’s escape out of the bathtub and down the heat vent. Read the book to find out how he was rescued! You can find a copy at Amazon.com.
teddy cover
I’ve edited seven anthologies, including WITH ALL MY HEART, WITH ALL MY MIND: 13 Stories about Growing Up Jewish, winner of the National Jewish Book Award in children’s literature and DUDE! Stories and Stuff for Boys, co-edited with my friend David L. Harrison. (David and I have collaborated on several projects, including the duet blog Writers At Work at http://usawrites4kids.blogspot.com.)
My latest anthology of fiction is for those who want to write for young readers as well as for young writers themselves: WRITING IT RIGHT: How Successful Children’s Authors Revise and Sell Their Stories. It’s available here: https://www.instituteforwriters.com/writing-it-right.html.
Writing it Right photo
I’ve also edited one book of non-fiction, AMERICA — THE OWNER’S MANUAL: How Your Country Really Works and How to Keep It Running, written by my husband, history professor emeritus Harvey Asher. It’s based on his blog of the same name at http://www.americatheownersmanual.wordpress.com.
After reading dozens of plays based on real people and events and choosing excerpts for AMERICAN HEARTBEAT: True Stories Told in Scenes and Monologues, I’m delighted to announce its publication by Dramatic Publishing Company. Read all about it at http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p3832/American-Heartbeat:-True-Stories-Told-in-Scenes-and-Monologues/product_info.html.AmericanHeartbeat cover
As Sandra Fenichel Asher, I’ve written over three dozen plays, including A WOMAN CALLED TRUTH, SOMEBODY CATCH MY HOMEWORK (inspired by the poetry of David L. Harrison), and an adaptation of Avi’s hilarious book ROMEO AND JULIET–TOGETHER (AND ALIVE!) AT LAST. My most recent plays include ARK 5, a futuristic re-imagining of the Joan of Arc story; WALKING TOWARD AMERICA, based on the memoirs of a dear friend who was a child witness to the hardships of World War II; an adaptation of George MacDonald’s classic THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN; and KEEPING MR. LINCOLN, about one of our greatest leaders.
Just for the record: “Fenichel” is pronounced FENN eh shell. A challenge at first, but easy when you know how!
On December 5, 2014, Betsy Hurley, founder and director of the Lancaster Literary Guild (http://www.litguild.org), appointed me as the first Lancaster County Children’s Laureate. A Poet Laureate program had been in place for some time, but I was honored to start a new tradition of authors working under the Guild’s auspices to encourage literacy and creativity among the young people of Lancaster County. I served during all of 2015 and 2016, designing and directing programs that brought visiting children’s authors to Lancaster and running workshops that encouraged literacy and creativity.
Most recently, with help from a grant from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, I’ve founded and now co-chair American Theatre for the Very Young: A Digital Festival, hosting full-length video recordings of performances for audiences aged 0 – 6 all over the country. Enjoy the work of more than a dozen companies at https://vimeopro.com/atvydigitalfestival/festival. Password: TVYDIGFEST.
Harvey and I are the parents of two grown children and have three grandchildren. We live in Lancaster, PA, with our dog Gracie and cat Friday.
STANLEY PHOTO
FRIDAY
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GRACIE
Harvey and I love to travel and have been fortunate enough to visit Canada, England, Scotland, France, Denmark, Russia, Latvia, China, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Ireland, and Costa Rica — so far!
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WITH HARVEY IN ITALY . . . AND IN PORTUGAL.
I’ve also visited schools, presented at conferences, and led writing workshops for children and adults from Anchorage, Alaska, to Amelia Island, Florida. I hope to continue doing so. Happy times!
I look forward to the road ahead.
QUOTED: "recommended as a read-aloud for preschoolers and a warm introduction to one joyful aspect of Jewish life."
ASHER, Sandy. Sophie's Monster Goes to Shul. illus. by Alexandra Colombo. 24p. Kar-Ben. Mar. 2024. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781728460239.
Gr 2-4--Sophie's fluffy blue monster lives in her closet (and her imagination), but now that Sophie is no longer afraid of him, he needs a new job. "Oy, oy, oy!" cries the Yiddish-speaking monster, until Sophie takes pity on him. Finding no success for a monster in the kitchen, the car, or even outside, Sophie eventually brings her monster to shul, the synagogue where she, Bubbe, and Zayde (her grandmother and grandfather) go each Sunday. When the monster hears Bubbe kvelling ("feeling happy and proud/ because we're all here"), he's all in. After all, what monster borne of a Jewish child's imagination could resist learning Israeli dances and clapping along to Jewish songs? This playful story celebrates the daily life of a Jewish family and honors religious and cultural traditions in a joyful, digital palette that will appeal to lovers of the film Monsters, Inc. (Indeed, Sophie's monster bears a striking resemblance to Sully). And nods to Judaism aside, any young reader might find themselves kvelling at the notion of a once-frightened child empowered to help their very own ex-monster find a new activity. VERDICT Recommended as a read-aloud for preschoolers and a warm introduction to one joyful aspect of Jewish life. --Rebecca Kirshenbaum
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirshenbaum, Rebecca. "ASHER, Sandy. Sophie's Monster Goes to Shul." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 4, Apr. 2024, p. 120. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A790645071/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cf8837e6. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.