Valerie Tripp is a children's book author, best known for her work with the American Girl series. She grew up in Mount Kisco, New York with three sisters and one brother. A member of the first co-educated class at Yale University, Tripp also has a M.Ed. from Harvard. Since 1985 she has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her husband teaches history at Montgomery College. Right out of college, Tripp started writing songs, stories, and nonfiction for The Superkids Reading Program, working with Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. For that series, Tripp wrote all the books about Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly, and Maryellen and many of the books about Samantha. She also wrote the "Best Friends" character stories to date, plays, mysteries, and short stories about all her characters.. Film dramatizations of the lives of Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit have been based on her stories. Currently, Tripp is writing a STEM series for National Geographic and adapting Greek Myths for Starry Forest Publishing. A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, Tripp has also spoken at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, The New York Historical Society, and Williamsburg.

I am an author of several award-winning children’s books and I also teach children’s book writing. As recipient of the Sugarman Award given by the Washington Independent Writer’s Legal and Educational Fund, I was appointed the Guest Lecturer on Writing for Children to the Humanities faculty at Case Western Reserve University. I have twice won the Sydney Taylor Award for the most outstanding contribution to Jewish Children’s literature. Also, I have worked full-time as a children’s writer for Addison-Wesley and wrote children’s fiction and non-fiction for Hampton Brown, Scholastic, Houghton-Mifflin, Harcourt Brace, The American Girl’s Collection, Heinemann, Radio New Zealand and the BBC. This year I have two new children’s books coming out. The first is The Word Dancer, a middle grade fantasy novel that both explores and celebrates the power of words. The second one, Brave with Beauty, is an advanced picture book about Queen Goharshad who some historians now believe was the most powerful woman in world history. In the 14th century she reigned from her throne in Herat in what is now Afghanistan and sponsored a spectacular renaissance of science and the arts. And, by the way, if you love Paris as much as I do, please check out the adventurous tale of a fashion-designing mouse who takes Paris by storm! Marielle in Paris is a fun picture book and a beautifully illustrated homage to Paris.