Author: petermarino

Peter is an English professor at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, New York where he teaches writing, speech, and the occasional literature class. He won the SUNY Chancellor's Award in 2006 for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. His first young adult novel, Dough Boy, about a fat and self-conscious but very funny high school sophomore, was published by Holiday House in October 2005 and is now available in paperback. It was nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2006. His latest young adult novel, also with Holiday House, is Magic and Misery, about a teenage girl trying to balance her life with her best gay friend and her new boyfriend. It has been nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2009 and is on Booklist’s Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth and was placed on the ALA Round Table Rainbow Books Bibliography.. He is finishing up three (yes three) new novels for young readers. Peter’s full-length play, The Grandma Show, co-authored with Tom Ecobelli, has had productions all over the country. His ten-minute play “Ralph Smith of Schenectady, New York...” has been produced in the 9th Annual New York City 15 Minute Play Festival, the Samuel French 2003 Short Play Festival, and SlamBoston! 2005. Another one-act, “The Good Samaritan,” won first place in SlamBoston! 2006.

Ellis Island by Molly Aloian

My grandparents were not quite of the humble origins they claimed to have been, something I found out years after they were gone. I’d assumed, based on their complaints about of the rough crossing of the seas from Sicily to…

J is for Jazz

The geometric shapes and the  vigorous colors on the cover (representative of every page inside) of J is for Jazz may very well have this book bebopping off the shelves into little hands. (It’s going to my nearly-two-year-old nephew next.)…

Families Around the World

Marketed as non-fiction, Families Around the World is based on real families interviewed by author Margriet Ruurs, and told in the first person by a child in that family. Each geographical family gets a two-page spread in which colorful illustrations…

Mahavira: The Hero of Nonviolence

Secular parents interested in enlightening their young readers (the book is aimed at children age 4 to 8, though it’s somewhat text-heavy, and high concept) about world religions may like this informative and colorful book about the ancient-era spiritual leader…