SHERI SINYKIN collected 156 rejection letters before her first novel, SHRIMPBOAT AND GYM BAGS, was published in 1990. “In the long run,” she tells readers, “perseverance is much more important than raw talent.”
Sinykin grew up in Sacramento, Calif., the eldest of four children. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Communications-Journalism in 1972. Ever since she was in third grade, she wanted to write children’s books, and finally, after many writing-related jobs, she settled down to follow her passion, while raising three sons. She was lead author of the popular Magic Attic Club series, and published seventeen books for young readers in the 1990s, as well as numerous children’s magazine stories. She received the Arthur Tofte Juvenile Fiction award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers for her novel, SIRENS, and an EdPress Award for “Mostly I Share but Sometimes I Don’t,” her HUMPTY DUMPTY story about unwanted touching for a preschool audience.
After a long period of writer’s block, precipitated by her mother’s devastating cancer diagnosis in 1997, Sinykin earned her MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College in 2003, studying with mentors Louise Hawes, Ron Koertge, Carolyn Coman, and Marion Dane Bauer. GIVING UP THE GHOST, her middle school novel set on a haunted plantation near New Orleans two years after Hurricane Katrina, deals with fear of death–her mother’s in particular. Her most recent novel was also informed by her work as a hospice volunteer and by research she did for her critical thesis: “GOOD GRIEF: Making Death and Bereavement Authentic for Middle Grade Readers.” Her first picture book, ZAYDE COMES TO LIVE (illustrated by Kristina Swarner, from Peachtree), explores the Jewish perspective of death for young listeners. It is slated for release in spring, 2011.
Sinykin served for six years as the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Wisconsin Regional Advisor and founded the popular SCBWI-Wisconsin fall retreat that continues to this day. In 1995, SCBWI awarded her its Member of the Year Award for service to the organization.
She divides her time between Arizona in the winter—home of two sons and three grandsons–and soon in the summer, Massachusetts—home of her youngest son—rather than Wisconsin, her home of 38 years.