African Americans, people born and raised in the United States, build a nation on the west coast of Africa....

A man with little education who drifted from one line of work to another—who had been a journalist, schoolteacher, and carpenter—publishes a book and changes the course of American poetry....

A Viennese neurologist, frustrated with the accepted treatments for stubborn cases, explores the human mind and triggers more than a century of controversy....

Incredible stories enrich our history, and these are the stories I tell in my books. I write nonfiction, mostly works of biography and American history. Some of my biographies are about creative people, including the poets E. E. Cummings and Walt Whitman, the novelist John Steinbeck, and the composer George Gershwin. I have written about the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and the African-American labor leader A. Philip Randolph.

My interest in African-American history led me to write This Our Dark Country, about the founding of Liberia by African Americans in the nineteenth century. It also inspired Africans in America, which reveals the lasting influence of enslaved Africans on American culture. Children take part in history, too, and Alone in the World looks into the lives of children living long ago who depended on society for care.

Some of my books are reference works. Working in America tells the story of laborers in the United States from the Revolutionary War through the present, using hundreds of quotes from the workers themselves. Poverty in America looks at the lives of the poor throughout our nation’s history and society’s attitude toward them.

Like all writers, I love a good story, and I find the best ones in our shared past. When I write I am always learning, and nothing pleases me more than to share what I have learned with you, my reader.

My Books

POVERTY IN AMERICA Facts on File, 2007 "...a rounded portrayal of the plight of the poor from colonial days to the present...in prose accessible to a high-school student yet sophisticated enough to engage an adult." ~Kirkus Reviews, September 25, 2007
WORKING IN AMERICA Facts on File, 2007 "an understandable and interesting survey of an important aspect of the American experience." ~Choice
E. E. Cummings: A Poet's Life Clarion, 2006 Junior Library Guild Premier Selection Award, 2006 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 2007 YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults, 2008
Alone in the World: Orphans and Orphanages in America Clarion Books, 2005 Junior Library Guild Selection, 2005 Kansas State Reading Circle Recommendation, 2005 Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices, 2006
African Americans in the Military Facts On File, 2004 Here is the history of African Americans defending their nation and fighting against prejudice in the U.S. armed forces, told through the life stories of 125 key participants.
William Grant Still: African-American Composer Morgan Reynolds, 2003 Through hard work and perseverance, the talented Still became a respected composer of musical works including symphonies, ballets, and operas.
This Our Dark Country: The American Settlers of Liberia Clarion, 2002 Recommended title, American Council of Teachers of English, 2003 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 2003 Voice of Youth Advocates Nonfiction Honor List, 2003
A. Philip Randolph: Union Leader and Civil Rights Crusader Enslow, 2001 This biography examines the life and times of the man who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African-American labor union, in 1925, and who conceived of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held on August 28, 1963.
Sigmund Freud: Pioneer of the Mind Clarion, 2001 2001 Sydney Taylor Award, Association of Jewish Libraries National Jewish Book Award Finalist, 2002 Voice of Youth Advocates Nonfiction Honor List, 2002 New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2001 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 2002 Capitol Choices, 2001
Paul Laurence Dunbar: Portrait of a Poet Enslow, 2000 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, 2001
George Gershwin: American Composer Morgan Reynolds, 2000 "Reef...employs a narrative style that makes the pages of her straightforward, well-documented biography of a pivotal figure in American music as engrossing as a novel." ~Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 1999
Africans in America: The Spread of People and Culture Facts On File, 1999 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 2000
John Steinbeck Clarion, 1996; Clarion paperback, 2004 "Worthy of Special Note," 1997 Jefferson Cup Award Committee Voice of Youth Advocates Nonfiction Honor List, 1997 American Library Association Notable Children's Book, 1997 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 1997 Hungry Mind Children's Book of Distinction
Walt Whitman Clarion, 1995; Clarion paperback, 2002 1994-1995 Joan G. Sugarman Children's Book Award 1996 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, Spring 1995 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, 1996 Hungry Mind Children's Book of Distinction