Rebecca Stead facts for kids

Rebecca Stead (born January 16, 1968) is an American writer of fiction for children and teens. She won the American Newbery Medal in 2010, the oldest award in children's literature, for her second novel When You Reach Me.

She won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2013 recognizing Liar & Spy as the year's best British children's book by a writer who has not previously won it.

Life

Born and raised in New York City, Stead enjoyed her elementary school years and fondly remembers reading books in a windowsill or under a table.

She attended Vassar College and received her bachelors degree in 1989.

Rebecca Stead is married to attorney Sean O'Brien and has two sons. She and her family live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Career

Rebecca Stead enjoyed writing as a child but later felt that it was "impractical" and became a lawyer instead. After years as a public defender she returned to writing after the birth of her two children. She credits her son with inspiring her to write a children's novel, but not in the way one would expect. For years she had collected story ideas and short stories on a laptop, which the child one day pushed off a table, destroying what she considered her serious writing. As a way to lighten her mood she began again with something light-hearted — her debut novel First Light, which was published in 2007 by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House.

Works

• First Light (Wendy Lamb Books, 2007)
• When You Reach Me (Wendy Lamb, 2009)
• Liar & Spy (Wendy Lamb, 2012)
• Goodbye Stranger (Wendy Lamb, 2015)
• The List of Things That Will Not Change (Wendy Lamb, 2020)