Ann Rinaldi (b. August 27, 1934, in New York City) is a young adult fiction author. She is best known for her historical fiction, including In My Father's House, The Last Silk Dress, An Acquaintance with Darkness, A Break with Charity, and Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons. She has written a total of forty novels, eight of which were listed as notable by the ALA. In 2000, Wolf by the Ears was listed as one the best novels of the preceding twenty-five years, and later of the last one hundred years. She is the most prolific writer for the Great Episode series, a series of historical fiction novels set during the American Colonial era. She also writes for the Dear America series. Rinaldi currently lives in Somerville, New Jersey, with her husband, Ron, whom she married in 1960. Her career, prior to being an author, was a newspaper columnist. She continued the column, called The Trentonian, through much of her writing career. Her first published novel, Term Paper, was written in 1979. Prior to this, she wrote four unpublished books, which she has called "terrible." She became a grandmother in 1991. Rinaldi says she got her love of history from her eldest son, who brought her to reenactments. She says that she writes young adult books "because I like to write them."
Series
Books
Leigh Ann's Civil War
2009
An Unlikely Friendship
A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley
2007
Nine Days a Queen
The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey
2005
Brooklyn Rose
2005
In My Father's House
1993
An Acquaintance with Darkness
1997
Sarah's Ground
2004
The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce
A Pilgrim Boy, Plymouth, 1620
2000
The Blue Door
1996
Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons
The Story of Phillis Wheatley
1996
Promises Are for Keeping
1982
Finishing Becca
A Story about Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold
1994
Cast Two Shadows
The American Revolution in the South
1998
Numbering All the Bones
2002
Girl in Blue
2001
The Color of Fire
2005
The Ever-After Bird
2007
The Redheaded Princess
2008
The Family Greene
2010
The Last Silk Dress
1988
My Vicksburg
2009
A Ride into Morning
The Story of Tempe Wick
1991
Broken Days
1995
Time Enough for Drums
1986
Mine Eyes Have Seen
1998
The Coffin Quilt
The Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys
1999
Taking Liberty
The Story of Oney Judge, George Washington's Runaway Slave
2002
The Letter Writer
2008
A Break with Charity
A Story about the Salem Witch Trials
1992
Millicent's Gift
2002
Keep Smiling Through
1994
Mutiny's Daughter
2004
Or Give Me Death
A Novel of Patrick Henry's Family
2003
Come Juneteenth
2007
My Heart is on the Ground
the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880
1999
The Education of Mary
A Little Miss of Color, 1832
2000
The Fifth of March
A Story of the Boston Massacre
1993
Wolf by the Ears
1991
A Stitch in Time
1994
The Last Full Measure
2010
The Second Bend in the River
1997
Amelia's War by RINALDI ANN (1999) Paperback
1999
Juliet's Moon
2008
But in the Fall I'm Leaving
1985
The Secret of Sarah Revere
1995
The Staircase
2000
The Good Side of My Heart
1987
