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If you are a student working on a book report or homework assignment, you’ll find most of the information you are looking for in the Biography section, but also please be sure to check out the Writing Advice for Kids section, which is full of tips and creative writing prompts for young writers.
Adult readers here to learn more about Frances’s quilting stories can start in the Quilting Fiction section to learn more about her novel Birds in the Air and her book of short stories, Margaret Goes Modern.
Frances O’Roark Dowell is the award-winning author of such novels as Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Children’s Book Award; the bestselling Secret Language of Girls trilogy; Shooting the Moon, which received a Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; the teen novel, Ten Miles Past Normal; and the new Sam the Man series for younger readers. Her first for adult readers was the quilting novel Birds in the Air, which was followed by a short story collection about the quilting life titled Margaret Goes Modern.
The Latest…

For Parents and Teachers: How to Encourage Your Reluctant Writer
When I’m talking about writing during a school visit, I ask the teachers to close their eyes so I can take a quick poll of the assembled students: How many of you love to write? [...]
Got Feedback? Here’s How to Use It
It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? You get notes on your story or poem, read them over, and then revise based on the suggestions you’ve received. Just like that, you’ve got a bright and shiny [...]
Surviving the Writing Workshop
It’s writing workshop day! Maybe you’re a sixth grader who’s never been through the process of getting feedback live and in person--and from six people all at once! Or maybe you’re thirty-two, sitting at shaky [...]
After the First Draft, Before the Editor
When I finish a first draft, I immediately want to send it off to my editor to get her thoughts. But before I do, I feel like I should clean it up a little bit, [...]
EVENT: Join Frances at McIntyre’s Books
Rajanni LaRocca, Midsummer’s Mayhem, Gillian McDunn Caterpillar Summer, and Frances O’Roark Dowell, The Class SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 | 2:00 PM https://fearrington.com/event/rajanni-larocca-gillian-mcdunn-frances-oroark-dowell/
‘The Class’ earns Starred Review from Booklist
"Award-winning and bestselling author Dowell has created an intricate, laugh-out-loud story, in which readers will recognize themselves and their own classmates through the 20 distinct perspectives that emerge as confessions and pieces of the mysteries [...]
Publishers Weekly Reviews ‘The Class’
"The many views and diverse cast create a complex, thought-provoking, and entertaining view of middle school.” —Publishers Weekly Read the full review of The Class - Publishers Weekly
Sam is pretty cool in any language…
Happy to get these author copies from Yewon Media Publishing Co., the Korean publisher of my Sam the Man books!
What Reviewers Are Saying
Learn more about the works of Frances O’Roark Dowell using the flip cards below.