Sherri L. Smith Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Avatar Graphic Novels
Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Avatar: The High Ground, Volume 1 | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Avatar: The High Ground, Volume 2 | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Avatar: The High Ground, Volume 3 | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Avatar Books
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Lucy the Giant | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sparrow | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Flygirl | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Orleans | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Toymaker's Apprentice | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pasadena | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Blossom and the Firefly | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Children's Books
Publication Order of Graphic Novels
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
American Wings: Chicago's Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky | (2024) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of What Was...? Books
What Was the Hindenburg? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Gold Rush? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the March on Washington? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Boston Tea Party? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Pearl Harbor? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Alamo? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Underground Railroad? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Pompeii? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Ellis Island? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Statue of Liberty? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Panama Canal? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was D-Day? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was D-Day? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the World Series? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Hurricane Katrina? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Were the Salem Witch Trials? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Super Bowl? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Great Depression? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Woodstock? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Are the Summer Olympics? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Declaration of Independence? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Were the Twin Towers? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Great Chicago Fire? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the San Francisco Earthquake? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Age of the Dinosaurs? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Wild West? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is Rock and Roll? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Ice Age? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Are the Ten Commandments? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the World Cup? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Titanic? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Holocaust? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is Climate Change? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Constitution? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Women's Rights Movement? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Were the Roaring Twenties? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Stanley Cup? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Stonewall? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is NASA? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Vietnam War? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Berlin Wall? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Were the Negro Leagues? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Are the Paralympic Games? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is LEGO? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is a Presidential Election? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Civil Rights Movement? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is Nintendo? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Age of Exploration? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is Congress? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Are the Winter Olympics? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Plague? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Harlem Renaissance? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Are Castles and Knights? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is Juneteenth? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the AIDS Crisis? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Supreme Court? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was Reconstruction? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Women's World Cup? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was World War I? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Donner Party? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Was the Children's Blizzard of 1888? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Who Was/Is...? Books
Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Annie Oakley? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ben Franklin? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Albert Einstein? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Sacagawea? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Harry Houdini? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Maria Tallchief? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Amelia Earhart? | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Thomas Jefferson? | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Helen Keller? | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Mark Twain? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ferdinand Magellan? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ronald Reagan? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Louis Armstrong? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was John F. Kennedy? | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Charles Darwin? | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Johnny Appleseed? | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Thomas Alva Edison? | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were the Beatles? | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was King Tut? | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Daniel Boone? | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was William Shakespeare? | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Anne Frank? | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Marco Polo? | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Elvis Presley? | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Abraham Lincoln? | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Neil Armstrong? | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Queen Elizabeth? | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Barack Obama? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was George Washington? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Pablo Picasso? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Walt Disney? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Claude Monet? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Franklin Roosevelt? | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jim Henson? | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jackie Robinson? | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Rosa Parks? | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Dr. Seuss? | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Paul Revere? | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Steve Jobs? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Babe Ruth? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is J.K. Rowling? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Roald Dahl? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Jane Goodall? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Maurice Sendak? | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Bill Gates? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Sally Ride? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Christopher Columbus? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Bob Dylan? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Michelle Obama? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Alexander Graham Bell? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Davy Crockett? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Frida Kahlo? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ernest Shackleton? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Steven Spielberg? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Milton Hershey? | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Louis Braille? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Nelson Mandela? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Abigail Adams? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Dolly Parton? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Theodore Roosevelt? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Bruce Lee? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is George Lucas? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were the Wright Brothers? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ulysses S. Grant? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Robert E. Lee? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Clara Barton? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Queen Victoria? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Muhammad Ali? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Marie Curie? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Henry Ford? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Roberto Clemente? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Susan B. Anthony? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Rachel Carson? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Julius Caesar? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Isaac Newton? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Gandhi? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Stan Lee? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Alfred Hitchcock? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Charles Dickens? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Genghis Khan? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Sitting Bull? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Betsy Ross? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Andy Warhol? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Gloria Steinem? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Frederick Douglass? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Galileo? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Wayne Gretzky? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Robert Ripley? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jesus? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jacques Cousteau? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Winston Churchill? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Mother Teresa? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Steve Irwin? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Woodrow Wilson? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Beatrix Potter? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was J. R. R. Tolkien? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Richard Branson? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Edgar Allan Poe? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were the Brothers Grimm? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jesse Owens? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Malala Yousafzai? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Derek Jeter? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Jeff Kinney? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is (Your Name Here)? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Julia Child? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Marie Antoinette? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Seabiscuit? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Blackbeard? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was George Washington Carver? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Sojourner Truth? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Michael Jackson? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Frank Lloyd Wright? | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Maya Angelou? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Lucille Ball? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Joan of Arc? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Elton John? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jules Verne? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Alexander the Great? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Milton Bradley? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Hillary Clinton? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was? Mad Libs | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Bruce Springsteen? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Stevie Wonder? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were The Three Stooges? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jacqueline Kennedy? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Charlie Chaplin? | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Sonia Sotomayor? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Cesar Chavez? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Princess Diana? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Are the Rolling Stones? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Bob Marley? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Pete Seeger? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Andrew Jackson? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Pope Francis? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Are Venus and Serena Williams? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Alexander Hamilton? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Fidel Castro? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Lewis Carroll? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Ralph Lauren? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Coretta Scott King? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Chuck Jones? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jane Austen? | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Knock! Knock! Who Was There? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Henry VIII? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Booker T. Washington? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is the Dalai Lama? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Aretha Franklin? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Leif Erikson? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Pele? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Selena? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Who Was? Activity Book | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Judy Blume? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Bono? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Is the Women's Rights Movement? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Nikola Tesla? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Napoleon? | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Michael Jordan? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was H. J. Heinz? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Norman Rockwell? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Where Is the Kremlin? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Stephen Hawking? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Che Guevara? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was P. T. Barnum? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Oprah Winfrey? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is R. L. Stine? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Harriet Tubman? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Mister Rogers? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Who Was? History of the World | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Sam Walton? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg? | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Jackie Chan? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Richard Nixon? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Temple Grandin? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Harvey Milk? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ida B. Wells? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is David Beckham? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Celia Cruz? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Benedict Arnold? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Nellie Bly? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Confucius? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Duke Ellington? | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Catherine the Great? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Walt Whitman? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Levi Strauss? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is RuPaul? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Neil deGrasse Tyson? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was A. A. Milne? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Juliette Gordon Low? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were the Navajo Code Talkers? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was David Bowie? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Were Stanley and Livingstone? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Queen Elizabeth II? | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Who Was? Trivia Book | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Charles Schulz? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ernest Hemingway? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Jimmy Carter? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Johnny Cash? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Ponce de León? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was E. B. White? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Georgia O'Keeffe? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Shaquille O'Neal? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Michelangelo? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Alex Trebek? | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Salvador Dalí? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was John McCain? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Is Simone Biles? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Jim Thorpe? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was Frank Sinatra? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Who Was John Lewis? | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Anthologies
If you take a closer look into one of the books written by Sherri L. Smith, you will most likely come across the quote : “Bad things happen everywhere, even in the land of roses”. These are perhaps the words that can most vividly describe young adult novels, which happen to be the center of Smith’s work. And indeed who could be more competent to write about all the things that accompany a transition to the world of grown-ups than a girl whose life brought her from coast to coast of the USA, and took her to work on movies like “Mars Attacks!”, make comic books, and work in a construction company? And win some literary awards in addition? Sherri L. Smith did all of this. This is a story about working girl(s).
Sherri L. Smith was born in Chicago in 1971. However, it was not the “Windy City” where she spent her childhood. It was, in fact, New York- Staten Island to be precise. Smith was always inclined towards the art, and her persistence enabled her to get a Bachelor’s degree in film and broadcast journalism, as well as Master’s degree of Arts in Humanity and Master’s degree of Science in business. The education provided her with a lot of possibilities, and it was not long until she entered the magical world of movies. She participated in the creation of the stop-motion animation effects in Tim Burton’s famous movie “Mars Attacks!” Soon after that, Smith landed a contract with Disney, where she worked on numerous animated projects. However, after three years, Smith was ready to accept new challenges and her career took a surprising turn, as she got a job in a construction company at LA International Airport. She used this time to do some work at Bongo Comics (where she was behind “The Simpsons” comic books) and devote herself to her dream- writing a novel. That is how “Lucy the Giant ” was conceived. Upon its initial release, Smith’s first novel was welcomed with praise and it was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young People. This was just the first drop in an ocean of accolades that this novel would eventually win. If “Lucy the Giant” was a success, what then to say about “Flygirl”? This novel turned out to be a small wonder, and the Washington Post even considered it as the best book of 2012. Smith gained a very strong core of fans and that incited her to continue with writing. This was a good call, as Sherri L. Smith still manages to write acclaimed young adult novels. This prolific author just could not stick to one job and she found a new occupation in a company that manufactures costumes and monsters for the sake of film industry. Nevertheless, writing stays Smith’s main preoccupation.
As it was stated, Smith’s sphere of interest revolves around young adult novels. Is there a better way to start talking about her books than to talk about Flygirl, a gold medalist in the selection of the California Book Awards? Flygirl is a story of Ida Mae Jones, a girl with big dreams in times of trouble. It is hard enough if you live in the WW2 period, it is even more difficult if you are a woman, and it is dreadful if you are an Afro-american in the USA. Nonetheless, if you have an ambition to become a world-class pilot, that takes your case to a whole new level. It seems like an impossible mission for many people. Not for Ida, though. She is a courageous girl with some baggage- her father was a renowned pilot, and she wants to follow his footsteps. Alas, those dreams are beyond the grasp of a black girl. Not even after the army conceives an organization called “Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) does Ida get a chance to get her wings. This decision drives our protagonist to take drastic measures- she makes a complex cover-up and starts presenting herself as white. Soon after she gets her position in WASP and is finally able to help her brother who is fighting somewhere in Pacific. Nevertheless, a new life that Ida has to live is going to face her with some important existential issues and she will have to be calm and act wisely in order not to go astray in the process of adjusting.
“Lucy the Giant” is the very first book written by Smith and it was published in 2002. It received many recognitions and made Sherri famous. This novel also revolves around a young heroine, who is limited by her society. This time, the place is Alaska, and the protagonist is Lucy Otswego, an unusually tall girl. Of course, as it is usually the case in small communities, “unusual” is often deemed as “gross” and Lucy gets a bad reputation. Things at home are not better. Lucy’s mother is out of the picture, and her father is a heavy drinker prone to the violent outbursts. Lucy does not have many friends, except for Sheila and her dog Bar, whom she found on the street. However, Bar soon falls ill and Lucy’s father could not care less about taking him to the vet. Lucy finally decides that she had enough and starts planning a new life, far from the coldness of Alaska and its citizens. Lucy yearns for a chance to escape, and soon after that chance shows itself in the form of a crabbing boat that is looking for crew. Due to Lucy’s strong physiognomy and sturdy stature that give her the looks of a much older girl, she is received on a boat and taken to a life changing trip in the freezing regions of Bering Sea. This is a trip that will change Lucy’s way of thinking and help her grow up.
Anyone who is even remotely introduced to Smith’s work will soon realize that this author finds particularly interesting to write about (mostly) teenage misfits, people who are at the crossroads between childhood and adult age, but do not seem to firmly stand on either of these places. That is the heart of young adult novels. If an author can correctly represent those mixed feelings, mild confusion as well as the uncertainty of mind in that delicate age, he will undoubtedly find his way to the audience, just like Smith did.
Book Series In Order » Authors »