Mara Rockliff

Mara Rockliff (born 1969 or 1970) is an American author of children's books specializing in works based on true stories. The American Library Association selected her book Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a Sibert Honor. This job involved research and many visits to the New York Public Library.

Freelance writer Eventually, Rockliff became a freelance writer for educational publishers. Booklist selected her book, The Case of the Stinky Socks from the Milo and Jazz series, for "100 Best Children's and YA Mysteries of the Past 10 Years." The book is about an African American female stonecutter who helped build the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in the 1970s.

Rockliff specializes in historical picture books for children, especially true stories about people who are not included in traditional histories. For example, she was inspired to write Born to Swing: Lil Hardin Armstrong's Life in Jazz when she realized female musicians were left out of the history of jazz music. She has written books about the female magician Adelaide Herrmann, pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy Blaché, World War II engineer Beatrice Shilling, and suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson. Rockliff learned of Ludwick in a 1964 magazine article about Pennsylvania Dutch cooking traditions.

Other books by Rockwell share unusual facts about famous people. Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France (2017) tells how Benjamin Franklin used the scientific method to debunk the mysterious powers of Franz Mesmer's magic wand. A similar title, 2020's Jefferson Measures a Moose (2020) tells how Thomas Jefferson used math to counter misinformation in a book about animals of the United States. Rockliff says, " I thought this story could do for math and measurement what Mesmerized did for the scientific method." In addition, Rockliff was exploring the concept of misinformation through the lens of current events in 2020. This led to her writing Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope (2020), a book about L. L. Zamenhoff who invented the universal language of Esperanto. The book was selected as a Notable Picture Book by the Sydney Taylor Book Award. Rockliff worked with Caplan's daughter to create Try It! which was selected by Smithsonian magazine as one of the ten best children's books of 2021.

Awards 2011 – Green Earth Book Award Honor Book for Get Real: What Kind of World Are You Buying? 2013 – Ezra Jack Keats Book Award Honor for My Heart Will Not Sit Down 2013 – Golden Kite Award for Me and Momma and Big John 2013 – Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor for Me and Momma and Big John 2014 – Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Bronze Medalist Alphabet/Counting for Albert the Muffin Maker 2015 – Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award for The Grudge Keeper 2016 – Cook Prize for Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France 2016 – Orbis Pictus Award Honor book for Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France 2016 – ALA Notable Children's Book for Gingerbread for Liberty: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution 2017 – National Council for the Social Studies-Children's Book Council Notable Trade Books for Young People for Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles 2018 – Garden State Children's Book Award for Gingerbread for Liberty: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution 2018 – Land of Enchantment Book Award for Gingerbread for Liberty: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution 2020 – Notable Picture Book, Sydney Taylor Book Award, Association of Jewish Libraries for Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope 2021 – Eureka! Excellence in Nonfiction Award Honor Title for Try It!: How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat 2023 – American Library Association Sibert Honor for Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Personal life Rockliff graduated from Brown University where she studied American history and literature. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.

Publications

As Mara Rockliff

As Lewis B. Montgomery

As Eleanor May

As Nan Walker