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Janet Nolan

Born: 1956 in Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Nolan was born in Chicago and currently resides in Oak Park, Illinois. She also graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Biography: Janet Nolan has a B.A. from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a member of the Illinois chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).Nolan was standing on the rocky shores of Ireland's west coast when she saw the perfect setting for her first picture book. ''The St. Patrick's Day Shillelagh'' celebrates an Irish American family history and the stories they told. On his way to America from Ireland to escape the Potato Famine, young Fergus carves a shillelagh from his favorite blackthorn tree, and each St. Patrick's Day for generations, his story is retold by one of his descendants.


Awards:
  • '''''The Firehouse Light'''''
  • -- Starred Review, School Library Journal '''''Seven and a Half Tons of Steel'''''
  • -- ILLINOIS READS Book Selection, Illinois Reading Council, 2017

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Children

Website: http://www.janetnolan.com/index.html


Selected Titles

A Father's Day thank you /
ISBN: 0807522910 OCLC: 71004001

Albert Whitman, Morton Grove, IL : ©2007.

Harvey the bear searches for the perfect Father's Day present and decides that thanking his dad is the best gift of all.

PB & J hooray! :
ISBN: 0807563978 OCLC: 868300657

Describes the journey a sandwich has made before it is eaten, from planting, farming, and harvesting to production, delivery, and shopping.

Seven and a half tons of steel /
ISBN: 1561459127 OCLC: 930364317

There is a ship, a Navy ship. It is called the USS New York. It is big like other Navy ships, and it sails like other Navy ships, but there is something special about the USS New York. Following the events of September 11, 2001, the governor of New York gave the Navy a steel beam that was once inside one of the World Trade Towers. The beam was driven from New York to a foundry in Louisiana. Metal workers heated the beam to a high, high temperature. Chippers and grinders, painters and polishers worked on the beam for months. And then, seven and a half tons of steel, which had once been a beam in the World Trade Center, became a Navy ship's bow.

The firehouse light /
ISBN: 1582462984 OCLC: 313077904

Tricycle Press, Berkeley [Calif.] : ©2010.

The true story of a light bulb in a firehouse located in Livermore, California, that has stayed lit for more than one hundred years.

The St. Patrick's Day shillelagh /
ISBN: 0807573450 OCLC: 49285470

A. Whitman & Co., Morton Grove, Ill. : 2002.

On his way from Ireland to America to escape the potato famine, young Fergus carves a shillelagh from his favorite blackthorn tree, and each St. Patrick's Day for generations, his story is retold by one of his descendants.

 

 

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