Ona gritz biography for kids

The summer before Ona Gritz entered the frightening new world of intermediate school, in 1973, she read her first middle grade novel, Judy Blume’s Are You There God?

It’s Me, Margaret. It wasn’t the story that most captivated her. It was the voice, which sounded exactly like the voice in her head. Ona found it amazing that a book could make a person feel understood, much the way a good friend can.

Ona gritz biography for kids pictures

I want to do that, she thought. I want to write books for kids like me.

Soon after, Ona bought a floral covered notebook with lavender pages and began filling it with stories and poems. While those first attempts were as flowery and purple as the notebook they were in, she kept at it, kept reading good books, and went on to study literature in college and earn a Master of Arts in poetry from the creative writing program at New York University.

Keeping a promise to her ten-year-old self, Ona wrote Starfish Summer, a middle grade novel and her first published book.

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