Sarah Albee

Sarah Albee is the New York Times bestselling author of nonfiction books for kids ages 6 to 14. Recent and forthcoming titles include Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries; North America: A Foldout Graphic History; Dog Days of History; and POISON: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines. She also writes biographies for younger readers. Subjects include Alexander Hamilton, Helen Keller, Jane Goodall, and George Washington. She lives in Connecticut and visits school around the country.

For Kids: Twelve Fun Facts About Sarah

• She’s the youngest of four kids.
• Her favorite food is a perfectly ripe mango.
• She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but grew up in South Burlington, Vermont.
• She was the second-shortest girl in her seventh grade class, but then grew nine inches in a year and a half, topping out at 5’10.”
• She was captain of both her basketball and track teams in high school—they were state champs.
• She plays the violin. She also loves opera, especially Mozart operas.
• When she was growing up, her family had lots of dogs and cats, and also chickens, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and an ornery watch-turkey named Simon who used to chase visitors up the walkway. Some of these visitors included boys who were there to pick up her older sister for a date. Awkward.
• She graduated from Harvard, and was a member of the humor magazine, The Harvard Lampoon.
• She lived in Cairo, Egypt for a year, where she played semi-pro basketball and worked as an editor.
• She speaks varying amounts of Italian, French, and Arabic. (She knows how to argue with a referee in Arabic.)
• Her first big job out of college was at Sesame Street. She worked there for nine years.
• Her favorite books to read are anything about the history of medicine, disease, and sanitation. Her favorite author of books for adults is P.G. Wodehouse.