WHO? About Me

WHO? Nancy is passionate about books. Always has been. Always will be. Among her earliest memories are spending time in the Montclair Public Library children's room, the library at Watchung School, and being read to every night by her father.  Early favorites included To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, by Dr. Seuss and Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. She spent many summer days in the apple tree in her back yard reading: Louisa Alcott's books (all of them), Nancy Drew,  Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and Sue Barton books. Later tree-reads included Exodus, Gone with the Wind,  and The Sun Also Rises.

Nancy attended Boston University, where she majored in Art for her first two years, and ended up with a B.S. in Elementary Education. Working in the children's library and taking "Children's Literature" with an awesome prof (Dr. Lorraine Tolman) at BU's School of Education, she came to know more about the world of children's literature: reading, analyzing, evaluating, creating lists and beginning her own collection of children's books. That is when and where her dream of someday earning a Caldecott Medal was born.

Teaching was her major career path. Nancy has taught at every level from Pre-K to PhD and has a really hard time not teaching anyone she runs into. She loves sharing what she has learned about the natural world from her parents, her teachers, her friends and professors at BU and U. Mass where she earned her PhD in Natural Resource Planning, with an emphasis on Forestry and Coastal  Ecology.

Nancy has one son (who is an urban forester in Brooklyn, NY), a terrific husband (who is a private guy) and a dog her son rescued in Florida, where Nancy and her son lived for 12 years. She is now back home in Montclair, NJ, in the house where she (and her mom and siblings) grew up.