Amy Alessio was driven to serving youth after brief stints working in the criminal justice and legal systems. She is the Teen Coordinator at the Schaumburg Twp. Dist. Library in Illinois, and has enjoyed the constant advice of her Teen Advisory Board for over six years. She is active in the Young Adult Library Services Association, and writes and teaches frequently on the topic of teen literature and initiatives. She and her husband, Kyle Dodson, keep active by parenting their toddler, Joshua.


Robin Brenner, a native of Boston, MA, loves stories and storytelling in all of its forms. She is an avid reader of everything from novels to comics to blogs but also consumes her fair share (perhaps more) of TV and movies. She works as a teen librarian, a job that allows her to research everything, even things she wouldn't think to consider, as well as connect teens with the information and entertainment they seek. She is also the creator and editor-in-chief of No Flying No Tights, a website reviewing graphic novels for teens and those who work with them. Through NFNT and following teen reading, she discovered the rich, vibrant world of Japanese manga.

She has a junkpit for a brain, meaning she can remember almost everything and anything she's read or seen, and despite the overcrowding, she wouldn't have it any other way. Current favorite creators include: Charles de Lint, Ellen Kushner, Holly Black, Patricia McKillip, David Simon, Rob Thomas, David Levithan, Gordon Korman, James Howe, Robin Hobb, Neil Jordan, David Lean, Joss Whedon, Greg Rucka, CLAMP and You Higuri.


Sarah Hannah Gómez studies music, creative writing and linguistics at the University of Arizona. She is also a writer of almost everything, but mostly and currently a novel. When she isn't reading or writing, she is usually making playlists, drinking chai, singing, or watching movies. You can contact her at hannahgomez@gmail.com. Read her blog at http://caramelsapphire.livejournal.com.


Ashley Hartlaub is a 16-year-old high school junior who has been writing book reviews for Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com for the past five years and has also done two author interviews. Her father, Joe Hartlaub, writes book reviews and conducts author interviews for Bookreporter.com. Besides reading and writing, Ashley likes animals, computers, music, shopping, and school. She's a straight-A student and is involved in too many extracurricular activities to name.


Renee Kirchner lives in Carrollton, Texas with her husband, Tom, and their two children, Nick and Rachel. She works as a teacher's aide for elementary students with learning disabilities. For the past four years Renee has written stories for children and her publishing credits include Highlights, Guideposts for Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Think and Discover, and Family Fun.

Spending time with her family and reading books are Renee's greatest passions in life.


Kristi Olson has loved to read and write her whole life. Her elementary school librarian warned her so many years ago, "At the rate you're going, you'll read every book in the library!" As an editor at an educational publishing company, she helps authors make great books even better. Kristi is also an aspiring children's book writer and is working on a middle-grade novel.


Norah Piehl, a former children's bookseller, has also worked in the publishing industry and helped to produce a children's book review journal. She now is a full-time mother and a part-time freelance writer, editor, and book reviewer whose work has appeared in Brain, Child, Pregnancy, Literary Mama, The Horn Book, and other publications. When she's not reading, writing, or writing about reading, Norah enjoys knitting and playing handbells. She lives outside Boston with her husband and young son.


Sarah Sawtelle has always been a self-described "bookaholic" or "bookworm," as many people commonly refer to an avid reader. In some respects it's due to the obsessive part of her --- when she really likes something, she often sticks to it for a long time. One of these addictions has been and always will be reading. Sarah usually reads everything written about a particular topic that interests her.

When her family got the Internet back in 1998, she discovered a great book website for teens called The Book Bag, now known as Teenreads.com. Nearly every time she would log on, even if she were at her cousins' house, she would always see if Teenreads.com had been updated. At the time, she had only one bookshelf that was already brimming with books from her many trips to the bookstore and library. Some would think that she would want to spend her pocket money on the latest trendy clothes or beauty supplies, but as many readers have experienced, there's nothing like a few new books to make your day. Another bookshelf, and now six years later Sarah's collection continues to grow, while occasionally being slimmed down or packed away in boxes.

In the summer of 2003, Sarah made the transition from being just a fan to a book reviewer, simply by sending an inquiring e-mail to Carol Fitzgerald, President of The Book Report Network. As they say, the rest is history and now she gets to use her positive addiction in a whole new way.

Sarah graduated from high school in May 2004 and is currently taking an extended break before beginning her college education. She will probably study Journalism or English, and would someday like to write and publish a book as well.


Emily Shaffer grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and has been writing fiction, poetry, screenplays and essays since she was 10. She has an MFA in film production from Boston University and her film Revisited has been featured in several film festivals, including the "New England Film Artists Present" series at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. As one-half of a writing team, Emily is currently co-writing a screenplay and has several other projects in the works, and her poetry has been published in the Rivier College Online Academic Journal and commissioned for special events and gifts. She's worked in the publishing and film industries in New York, as a publicist for such critical hits as the Iranian film Kandahar as well as a freelance reader for a major publisher of young adult fiction. Emily has lived in Israel, London and France, but considers home to be New York City (although she often fantasizes about living among palm trees and beaches).


When Terry Miller Shannon isn't reading, she's writing: picture books, middle-grade fiction, nonfiction children's books, educational books, travel articles, gardening articles, health articles, relationship articles, essays, recipes, poetry, short stories, and book reviews (and maybe a few other things she's forgetting at the moment!). Her first picture book, TUB TOYS (Tricycle Press), was written with her son Tim Warner; another is scheduled to be published by Hyperion in 2006. She thoroughly enjoys writing middle-grade fiction books for the new Wizards of the Coast Star Sisterz series under a pen name. Other pleasures include gardening and cooking with her husband (also a devoted reader); reading to/playing with her grandchildren; any kind of research; beachcombing; hanging out with her big black dog, Romeo; and watching movies. You can read about Terry at http://terrymillershannon.com or write to her at terryms2001@yahoo.com.


Sally Tibbetts has always been a reader and comes from a family of readers. She cut her teeth at the little Carnegie library in Kokomo, Indiana. It never occurred to her back then that eventually her path would lead to a passion of collecting, reading and sharing her joy of books with others.

Sally's undergrad schooling was at Dominican in River Forest, Illinois. That was a long way from Kokomo, but offered many more books than she had ever seen. She received her masters from Northern Illinois University in Instructional Technology with an emphasis in Library Science. Working at Maine West High School library in Des Plaines, Illinois, she gets to share her love of YA books with teens and teachers through booktalking and helping in the collection development.

Reviewing books is sometimes work but mostly fun --- Sally especially loves keeping up with what teens are reading. Having lived through her own teenagers, Sally never thought she'd have the courage to work with them, but she loves them --- probably because she gets to say good-bye at the end of the day. Their energy and zest for life is terrific, and the trends she sees in their reading often reflects how confusing and difficult the world they live in has become. Getting to talk to them about their reading really can be eye-opening --- for both sides!

Reviewing has helped Sally read a much broader spectrum of genre than she would otherwise. She has found authors and books she would not have known if she weren't a reviewer.


Carole Turner reads, writes and gardens on Kelleys Island, Ohio, a small chunk of limestone four miles from the mainland, in Lake Erie.

She has been reviewing for Teenreads.com, Kidsreads.com and Bookreporter.com since November 2004. She wrote a review column for Kelleys Life for many years and has been published in GreenPrints and Lifestyles 2000.

Her favorite authors include Erma Bombeck, Robert Fulghum, Barbara Kingsolver, Rosamunde Pilcher, Elizabeth Buchan, Anne Tyler, Laura Simon, Andy Rooney, Roger Swain, May Sarton and Gladys Taber.

Carlie Webber, a native of Chicago who now lives in New Jersey, has forgotten how to make left turns but enjoys her French fries with gravy. She is a teen librarian, a member of the Garden State Teen Book Awards Committee and the One Book New Jersey 2005 Committee, and a reviewer for Voice of Youth Advocates. Although she can't remember where she put her keys most of the time, she can remember the plot of almost every book she's ever read. Her favorite books include A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Betty Smith, THE CHOCOLATE WAR by Robert Cormier, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES by Shirley Jackson. In her spare time she enjoys shopping, writing, music, participating in the online Harry Potter fandom and, like any good New Jersey resident, driving much too fast.


Sarah Wood has been reading and writing all her life. She has kept a journal since she was 11, which now numbers over 70 volumes. One day she hopes to be the author of morally complex novels for young people. While she loves books generally, Sarah's passion is for children's and young adult literature, and she thinks it should receive broader recognition as literature in its own right and not just training wheels for the classics. She believes that reading is a fundamental right and wishes people would exercise it more regularly. "There is no excuse for ignorance in a country where libraries and an education are free," she says. She refuses to accept that there are people who don't like to read, and stubbornly believes it is only because they have not found the right book yet. Some of her favorite authors include Joan Aiken, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Tove Jansson, Madeleine L'Engle, Diana Wynne Jones, and Adele Geras.

© Copyright 1997-2008, Teenreads.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.