Kathleen was lucky enough to serve as the chairperson to a wonderful group of ALA members on the Newbery Award Committee in 2001. She was also a member of an earlier Newbery Award Committee, Caldecott
Award Committee, Notable Children’s Books Committee, and Carnegie
Award Committee for videos.
Kathleen reviewed books children's and YA books for Kirkus Reviews, Teacher-Librarian, School Library Journal, Booklist, and The Providence Journal. She
was a contributing editor to BOOK: The Magazine for the Reading
Life for five years.
Kathleen is the author of four guides, now out of print: Great Books
for Girls: More than 600 Recommended Books for Girls Ages 3-14 (first published in 1997 and revised in May 2002), Great Books
for Boys: More than 600 Books for Boys 2 to 14 (Ballantine,
1998), Great Books about Things Kids Love: More than 750 Recommended
Books for Children 3 to 14 (Ballantine, 2002), and Great
Books for Babies and Toddlers: More than 500 Recommended Books for
Your Child’s First Three Years (Ballantine, 2003).
A Minnesota native and current Rhode Island resident, Kathleen
has a B.A. in English from Carleton College, Northfield, MN, and
an MLS and M.A. in Folklore from the University of California at
Berkeley. Her folklore thesis on the lore of the stock market was
the subject of her first book, High Steppers, Fallen Angels,
and Lollipops: Wall Street Slang (Dodd, Mead, 1988).
You can reach her at kathleenodean@gmail.com
