Meet the Author  
Jane Ann Peddicord is an award winning
children’s book author, lawyer, and space
enthusiast.   For her thoughts on writing for
children, read her interview in
Cynsations,
the acclaimed blog by New York Times best
selling author
Cynthia Leitich Smith.  

Jane is represented by Rosemary Stimola of
the
Stimola Literary Studio.
Her first book, NIGHT WONDERS (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2005) is a flight of fancy
through our solar system and beyond, to the edges of the known universe.  A mixed genre
work, blending poetry and prose, non-fiction and adventure, NIGHT WONDERS won
the 2006 International Reading Association Children’s Book Award for Primary Nonfiction.

Her next book, THAT SPECIAL LITTLE BABY (Harcourt 2007), illustrated by Meilo So,
also incorporates lively rhyming stanzas, this time to celebrate toddler achievements of
cosmic proportions from walking and talking, to wearing big kid pants, and…well, you’ll
see.

Jane launched
SpaceBlog on January 9, 2011, seeking to interest kids in space by engaging
them directly in the discovery process. "I'll use anything I can think of to draw kids in,"
Jane says. And she does; starting with
SpaceGame a virtual hunt for mystery destinations in
our solar system. Clues range from helpful Skype messages from someone called 'Nasa'
and lapses into old English (brought on by the Shakespearian names of Uranus' 27 moons),
to weekly limerick riddles, aka limmer-iddles, submitted by the mystery planets
themselves. Lots of authentic photographs enliven the site and it all works together to take
the reader out of this world, at least for a few minutes
with each new post.
              

Jane has been a featured author at the Texas Book Festival, as well as at schools, public
libraries, and universities, and is an author participant in the Texas Writer’s League Project
WISE school enrichment program. “Jane did a wonderful job…We were thrilled to be
able to have her visit our campus!” reported McBee Elementary School librarian Heather
Stephens, after a recent visit.  
.
In addition to authoring SpaceBlog, she is currently writing a new book about space
exploration in our solar system, provisionally titled, Within Our Reach. She volunteers
with American Gateways, providing pro bono legal services to immigrants and refugees in
Central Texas, and serves on the board of the Texas After Violence Project, an oral
history initiative that works to reduce violence by listening.

Jane lives happily in Austin, Texas with her husband (a UT math professor), their two
children (in between University terms and internships), and their three springer spaniels.
 
Jane Ann Peddicord
IRA - 2006 Children's Book Award
Texas Book Festival - 2006 featured book

Peddicord travels a long, long, way,
past stars and glowing nebulae, into
intergalactic space-then, ultimately,
loops back to a special blue-green
planet 'graced by water, wind, and
air...' readers will be more than willing
to tag along...'
School Library Journal, April 2005

"We've long waited for books such as
these to explain, in age-appropriate
language, some of the fundamental
concepts that have shaken the
foundation of Physics."
Laura Kraft, W.M. Keck Observatory,
April 2005
Texas Book Festival - 2007 featured book

"...This is a perfect celebration
covering all of the steps that a
newborn makes en route to becoming
a toddler.  The lush, enormously
appealing illustrations perfectly mesh
with the bouncy rhyme...Sure to be a
much-demanded, "Read-it-again"
picture book..."
School Library Journal, Sept. 2007

"...Peddicord creates a heartfelt story
commemorating the wonderful
development that occurs between
infancy and early childhood.  This
joyful testimony to a child's
progression is bound to appeal to a
preschooler's sense of pride in their
recent gains..."
Kirkus Reviews, Aug. 2007