

Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. She won an Illinois Arts Council award for this topical young adult novel, Brave New Wanda. Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away.

She's also taught on the faculties of Baylor University, Texas Tech University, Columbia College Chicago, and Austin Peay State University. News and World Report, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Her articles have appeared coast to coast in major newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Houston Post and the San Diego Union-Tribune, and her nonfiction books have been reviewed in The Washington Post, U.S. She was inspired to write this young adult novel after researching the world of donor insemination for a series on the subject of the human side of "reprotech." Lynda Rutledge has been a junior high teacher, a copywriter, a journalist, a book club director, and, once upon a time, a 13-year-old.
