Leslie Kimmelman is the author of many books for children, including the recent Everybody Bonjours; Mind Your Manners, Alice Roosevelt! (a CELI finalist, Bank Street Best Children’s Book, and NCSS/CBC book); and The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah (a Sydney Taylor Notable Book), as well as a number of titles currently in production. Leslie has been a children’s book editor for more than twenty-five years, and is currently working as a part-time editor at Sesame Workshop. She has also written for a variety of parenting magazines, children’s magazines, and Web sites, and has penned numerous books for licensed properties (Nickelodeon, Disney, Sesame Street, and so on) under the name Jodie Shepherd.

Leslie grew up outside Philadelphia, graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in history, and now lives near New York City with her family.