Holly Goldberg Sloan facts for kids

Holly Goldberg Sloan (born in 1958) is a super creative American writer, film director, and producer. She's famous for writing and directing movies, and for her books that have become New York Times bestsellers!

About Holly Goldberg Sloan

Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her dad, Lewis R. Goldberg, was a psychology professor, and her mom, Robin Montgomery, was an architect. Growing up, Holly lived in many different places, including California, the Netherlands, Turkey, Washington, D.C., and Oregon.

She went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts. After college, she moved to Los Angeles. When she was just 24 years old, she sold her very first movie script! This was the start of her exciting career in films.

Holly's Work in Movies

Holly Goldberg Sloan has worked on many cool movies. She wrote the film Made in America in 1993. She also wrote and produced Angels in the Outfield in 1994, which is a popular baseball movie.

In 1995, Holly made history! She was the first woman to direct a live-action movie for Disney. This movie was a soccer film called The Big Green, and she wrote and directed it herself. Later, she wrote and directed an independent film called The Secret Life of Girls.

Holly also wrote the script for Steve Irwin's movie, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002). She wrote and directed Heidi 4 Paws (2008), which is a fun version of the classic Heidi story, but with real dogs playing all the parts! This movie was shown on public television. In 2014, she wrote a Christmas movie for the Hallmark Channel called One Christmas Eve.

Becoming a Bestselling Author

Holly Goldberg Sloan is also a very successful author. Her first book, I'll Be There, came out in 2011. Her books are now printed by 32 different publishers and are available in 24 languages around the world!

Her second book, Counting By 7s, was published in 2013. This book was a huge hit! Amazon named it the best book of the year for middle schoolers. It also stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for over forty weeks. A follow-up book to I'll Be There, called Just Call My Name, was published in 2014. Both of these books might even become a TV series!

Awards for Her Books

Counting By 7s has won many awards. It was nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award in 2014. It was also an E.B White Honor Book. In Italy, it won the Hans Christian Andersen Award in Genoa for being the best novel for children aged 12 and up. This book has appeared on 44 state reading lists in the United States and has sold over one million copies! It won "best book for young readers" awards in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

In 2015, Holly's novel Appleblossom the Possum was published. It was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month. The audiobook version of this story was read by the famous actor Dustin Hoffman, and it even had music by Ry Cooder. Holly's husband, Gary A. Rosen, who is also a writer, created the illustrations for this book.

Her next novel, "Short," came out in 2017. It also became a New York Times bestseller and a favorite at independent bookstores.

In 2019, Holly worked with another author, Meg Wolitzer, to write To Night Owl From Dogfish. This book was also a bestseller and has been picked up by Disney+ for a possible show!

Her novel "The Elephant in the Room" was published in 2021. Her first book for adult readers, "Pieces of Blue," came out in 2023.