American novelist
Martha Brockenbrough is an American author of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Her first book, It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond , was published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2002. She is the founder of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and of National Grammar Day (observed in the United States since 2008).[ 1] [ 2]
Brockenbrough was born in Seattle , Washington, and graduated in 1992 from Stanford University , where she studied Classics and English. She was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily .[ 3]
Brockenbrough was editor of MSN.com[ 4] and was an educational humor columnist for Encarta.com before its demise in 2009.[ 5] She founded National Grammar Day in 2008.[ 6]
Brockenbrough's young adult novel The Game of Love and Death , published 2015, was a finalist for the 2015 Kirkus Prize,.[ 7] The book was selected as one of the Top 10 Romances for Youth by the American Library Association's publication, Booklist.[ 8] It is also a nominee for YALSA's Best Books For Young Adults in 2016.[ 9] It was listed as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2015,[ 10] and won the 2016 Washington State Book Awards in the category Books For Young Adults.[ 11]
In spring 2016, The Discovery Channel published Brockenbrough's Shark Week: Everything You Need to Know . Publishers Weekly recommended the book to young readers.[ 12]
Prior to The Game of Love and Death , Brockenbrough wrote Devine Intervention , a Kirkus Reviews Top 100 Books for Teens selection in 2012,[ 13] and was selected by the Kansas State Reading Circle.[ 14] It also won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association book award for 2016.[ 15]
In 2022, Brockenbrough's picture book I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story won the Carter G. Woodson Book Award (Elementary Level).[ 16]
Brockenbrough, Martha (September 2, 2002). It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond . Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0740726859 .
Brockenbrough, Martha (October 14, 2008). Things That Make Us [Sic] . St. Martin's Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0312378080 .
Brockenbrough, Martha (August 13, 2013). Finding Bigfoot . Feiwel & Friends. p. 160. ISBN 978-1250040909 . [ 22]
Brockenbrough, Martha; Discovery (May 17, 2016). Shark Week:Everything You Need to Know . Feiwel & Friends. p. 160. ISBN 978-1250097774 .
Brockenbrough, Martha (September 5, 2017). Alexander Hamilton - Revolutionary . Feiwel & Friends. ISBN 978-1250123190 . [ 23]
Brockenbrough, Martha (November 13, 2018) Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump . Feiwel & Friends. ISBN 9781250308030 .[ 24]
Brockenbrough, Martha (November 23, 2021) I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story . Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780316426923 .[ 25]
^ "National Grammar Day" . Quick and Dirty Tips . 16 May 2023.
^ McIntyre, John. "Prepare yourself for National Grammar Day" , The Baltimore Sun , February 27, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
^ "The Stanford Daily 29 January 1992 — The Stanford Daily" . stanforddailyarchive.com .
^ Midwest Writers (13 April 2015). "Martha Brockenbrough Joins MWW15 Faculty" . Midwest Writer's Workshop .
^ Macmillan Publishers. "Martha Brockenbrough" .
^ The Christian Science Monitor (2 March 2013). "The imperatives of National Grammar Day" . The Christian Science Monitor .
^ Dwyer, Colin (30 September 2015). "In Sophomore Year, Kirkus Prize Features An Eclectic Mix Of Finalists" . NPR.org . Retrieved 2015-10-19 .
^ Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth: 2015, by Ilene Cooper - Booklist Online – via booklistonline.com.
^ "BFYA Nominations" . ala.org .
^ "Best Books of 2015 | Publishers Weekly" . PublishersWeekly.com . Retrieved 2015-10-30 .
^ "Books For Young Adults 2016 | Seattle Public Library" . spl.org . Retrieved 2016-10-09 .
^ "Shark Week:Everything You Need to Know" . PublishersWeekly.com . Retrieved 2016-05-31 .
^ "Best Children's Books of 2012" . Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved 29 October 2015 .
^ "KNEA - RCC Item" . www.knea.org . Archived from the original on 2015-10-08.
^ "2016 Book Awards" .
^ "Carter G. Woodson Book Award and Honor Winners" . National Council for the Social Studies . Retrieved 29 October 2024 .
^ Carpenter, Susan (11 June 2012). "Review: 'Devine Intervention' shows there's life in afterlife" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 29 October 2015 .
^ "The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy" . Booklist . Retrieved 29 October 2015 .
^ "Game of Love and Death" . Booklist .
^ "Martha Brockenbrough's The Game of Love and Death" . Kirkus Reviews . 3 February 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015 .
^ "Game of Love and Death" . Scholastic . Retrieved 29 October 2015 .
^ "Between the Lines » 2014 » November" . wa.gov .
^ SLJ (5 September 2017). "Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough" . School Library Journal. Retrieved 5 September 2017 .
^ "Unpresidented | Martha Brockenbrough | Macmillan" . US Macmillan . Retrieved 2018-09-11 .
^ I Am an American . 2021-03-09. ISBN 978-0-316-42692-3 .
General winners (1974–1988)
Rosa Parks by Eloise Greenfield (1974)
Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers by Jesse C. Jackson (1975)
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (1976)
The Trouble They Seen by Dorothy Sterling (1977)
The Biography of Daniel Inouye by Jan Goodsell (1978)
Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations edited by Peter Nabokov (1979)
War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute by Nancy Wood (1980)
The Chinese Americans by Milton Meltzer (1981)
Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico by Susan Carver and Paula McGuire (1982)
Morning Star, Black Sun by Brent Ashabranner (1983)
Mexico and the United States by E.B. Fincher (1984)
To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today by Brent Ashabranner (1985)
Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America by Brent Ashabranner (1986)
Happily May I Walk by Arlene Hirschfelder (1987)
Black Music in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins (1988)
Secondary level winners (grades 7–12, since 1989)
Marian Anderson by Charles Patterson (1989)
Paul Robeson by Rebecca Larsen (1990)
Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston by Mary E. Lyons (1991)
Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte by Jeri Ferris (1992)
Mississippi Challenge by Mildred Pitts Walter (1993)
The March on Washington by James Haskins (1994)
Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War by Zak Mettger (1995)
A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by Ellen Levine (1996)
The Harlem Renaissance by Jim Haskins (1997)
Langston Hughes by Milton Meltzer (1998)
Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble by Rinna Evelyn Wolfe (1999)
Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linnea (2000)
Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World by Albert Marrin (2001)
Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity by Barbara C. Cruz (2002)
The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case by Harvey Fireside (2003)
Early Black Reformers by James Tackach (2004)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 edited by Robert H. Mayer (2005)
No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement by Calvin Craig Miller (2006)
Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim (2007)
Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man by Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach (2008)
Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez (2009)
Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum (2010)
An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine M. Alphin (2011)
Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connors by Larry Dane Brimner (2012)
Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man by Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin (2013)
(none in 2014)
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin (2015)
Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery by Winifred Conkling (2016)
March (Trilogy) by John Lewis , Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2017)
Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 by Larry Dane Brimner (2018)
A Few Red Drops by Claire Hartfield (2019)
Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace by Ashley Bryan (2020)
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne (2021)
Race Against Time by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace (2022)
Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment by Lawrence Goldstone (2023)
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham (2024)
Middle level winners (grades 5–8, since 2001)
Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2001)
Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier by Alice Hinkel (2002)
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper (2003)
In America's Shadow by Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu (2004)
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (2005)
César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers by Bárbara Cruz (2006)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (2007)
Black and White Airmen: Their True History by John Fleischman (2008)
Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp (2009)
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (2010)
(none in 2011)
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin (2012)
Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours by Ann Bausum (2013)
Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden (2014)
The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield (2015)
(none in 2016)
(none in 2017)
Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi (2018)
America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z by Wendy Ewald (2019)
Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace by Ashley Bryan (2020)
Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith (2021)
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford (2022)
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America (The Young Adult Adaptation) by Candacy Taylor (2023)
Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series by Traci Sorell (2024)
Elementary level winners (grades K–6, since 1989)
Walking the Road to Freedom by Jeri Ferris (1989)
In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family by Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers (1990)
Shirley Chisolm by Catherine Scheader (1991)
The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i by Fay Stanley (1992)
Madam C.J. Walker by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack (1993)
Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter by Mary E. Lyons (1994)
What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson by Jeri Ferris (1995)
Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave by Monty Roessel (1996)
Ramadan by Suhaib Hamid Ghazi (1997)
Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage (1998)
Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence by John Duggleby (1999)
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (2000)
The Sound that Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford (2001)
Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter by Nanette Mellage (2002)
Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia by Richard Griswold del Castillo (2003)
Sacagawea by Liselotte Erdrich (2004)
Jim Thorpe's Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac (2005)
Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven (2006)
John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson (2007)
Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise (2008)
Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship by Nikki Giovanni (2009)
Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo (2010)
Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2011)
Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce (2012)
Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim (2013)
Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band by Anne Rockwell (2014)
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh (2015)
Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate ; The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton (2016)
Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel (2017)
The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson (2018)
The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just by Mélina Mangal (2019)
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander (2020)
William Still and His Freedom Stories by Don Tate (2021)
I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story by Martha Brockenbrough and Grace Lin (2022)
Where We Come From by Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin , Shannon Gibney, and John Coy (2023)
My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom (2024)