Graff, Lisa 1981-

views updated

Graff, Lisa 1981-

Personal

Born 1981. Education: Attended University of California, Berkeley; New School University, M.F.A. (creative writing for children). Hobbies and other interests: Reading, writing, playing board games.

Addresses

Home and office—New York, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer and editor. Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, New York, NY, assistant editor.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Writings

The Thing about Georgie, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Bernetta Wallflower, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

In addition her work in publishing, Lisa Graff has established a second career as an author of children's fiction. In the middle-grade novel The Thing about Georgie Graff shines the spotlight on an unusual young protagonist. While nine-year-old Georgie deals with the same things as many other children his age—including struggles with sibling rivalry, issues with his best-friend Andy, and problems at school when the teacher assigns him to write a book report with the class bully—he also has do deal with being a dwarf.

Graff weaves the challenges of dealing with an oversized world into The Thing about Georgie in such a way that readers gain compassion for the boy and begin to understand and appreciate his physical limitations. Susan Dove Lempke, reviewing the novel for Horn Book, wrote that Graff inspires reader "empathy with [a] … character who in many ways faces the same challenges they do." A critic for Kirkus Reviews called Georgie "a likable hero" who "is realistically drawn" and dubbed The Thing about Georgie "a compelling portrayal of dwarfism, differences and growing up." In Booklist, Kay Weisman remarked on Graff's ability to introduce the difficulties of dwarfism to readers, praising the author's ability to portray, with humor, "what it means to celebrate one's skills rather than lamenting one's limitations."