Karen Hesse

Karen S. Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings. during which she began publishing poetry.

Career After graduating, she moved with her husband to Brattleboro, Vermont, had two children, Rachel and Kate, took jobs in publishing, and started writing children's books.

Her first novel was a rejected story about meeting Bigfoot, but her next proposal was published by Henry Holt in 1991 as Wish on a Unicorn.

In 2012 Hesse received the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association for Letters from Rifka, recognizing the best children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award. 1993, Poppy's Chair, illus. Kay Life (Macmillan, ) 1994, Phoenix Rising (Macmillan, ) 1994, Sable, illus. Marcia Sewall (Henry Holt, ) (Google Books edition, San Val, ) 1995, A Time of Angels (Hyperion, ) 1995, Lavender, illus. Andrew Glass (Google Books edition, Macmillan, ) 1996, The Music of Dolphins (Google Books edition, Scholastic, ) 1997, Out of the Dust (Google Books edition, Scholastic, ) 1998, Just Juice, illus. Robert Andrew Parker (Google Books edition, Scholastic, ) 1999, Come on, Rain, illus. Jon J. Muth (Scholastic, ) 1999, A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (Scholastic, ) 2000, Stowaway (Google Books edition, Simon & Schuster, ) 2001, Witness (Google Books edition, Scholastic, ) 2003, Aleutian Sparrow (Google Books edition, Simon & Schuster, ) 2003, The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah through History, illus. J. Brian Pinkney (Hyperion, ) 2004, The Cats in Krasinski Square, illus. Wendy Watson (Google Books edition, Scholastic, ) 2005 The Young Hans Christian Andersen (Scholastic, ) 2008, Spuds, illus. Wendy Watson (Scholastic, ) 2008, Brooklyn Bridge (Google Books edition, Macmillan, ) 2011, "Nell" — a short story included in the young-adult anthology What You Wish For (Putnam, ) (also available on Tor.com) 2012, Safekeeping (Feiwel & Friends, )

2018, "Night Job" (Candlewick Press), ) 2022, "Granny and Bean" (Candlewick Press))