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Anne Sibley O'Brien (AnneSibleyOBrien.com) is a children's book writer and illustrator who has created thirty-seven books, some of which she wrote and illustrated, some she wrote, and some she illustrated.
Her first novel, IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN (A.A. Levine/Scholastic 2017), is a political escape thriller set in North Korea, the first novel for young readers about the contemporary DPRK. A Junior Library Guild selection, it was also named a Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year; a CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People; an International Literacy Association Teachers' Choice; and a Maine Student Book Award Nominee.
Two of her latest books, I'M NEW HERE (Charlesbridge 2015) and SOMEONE NEW (Charlesbridge 2018), are companion titles telling the stories of three immigrant children adjusting to a new home in the U.S. and the classmates who become their first friends. Both titles received starred reviews from Kirkus, and I’M NEW HERE was named to these lists: Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2015; CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2016; 2016-2017 Maine Chickadee Award Nominee; 2016-2017 Washington State Children's Choice Nominee; 2016 Maine State Library Cream of the Crop; and 2016 Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year.
Other books she’s created which offer contemporary portraits of immigrant families in the U.S., are WHAT WILL YOU BE, SARA MEE? (Charlesbridge), the story of a Korean-American first birthday by Kate Aver Avraham; MOON WATCHERS: SHIRIN'S RAMADAN MIRACLE (Tilbury) by Reza Jalal, which was a finalist for the Maine Book Award, and WHO BELONGS HERE? AN AMERICAN STORY (Tilbury) by Margy Burns Knight. A PATH OF STARS, a picture book she wrote and illustrated about a Cambodian-American family, was commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council and won the Honor Picture Book Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association.
Picture books she illustrated include JAMAICA'S FIND (Houghton Mifflin) and six other Jamaica books by Juanita Havill; and TALKING WALLS (Tilbury House) and four other titles by Margy Burns Knight , for which they received the 1997 National Education Association Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award.
O'Brien's passion for multiracial, multicultural, and global subjects was kindled by her experience of being raised bilingual and bicultural in South Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries. She reflects on race, culture and children's books at her blog, "Coloring Between the Lines" (www.coloringbetweenthelines.com). In 2014 she received the Katahdin Award for lifetime achievement from the Maine Library Association.
She lives with her husband on an island in Maine and is the mother of two grown children and a grandmother of one.
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