NOVELS
One Hundred Spaghetti Strings was released in April, 2017. 
When life hands Steffany Sandolini lemons, she makes…pasta sauce! This brave and heartwarming middle grade novel will leave your belly rumbling and your heart full. As far back as Steffy can remember, she and her older sister Nina have lived with their Auntie Gina. But when their dad comes home to live with them, everything changes. When Steffy feels like there are pieces of her all over the place, she does what she does best: she cooks her way through the hardest year of her life. But sometimes her life feels like a kitchen-sink meal, with too many ingredients that don’t quite work together. Can the recipes put her—and her family—back together again?

View the SPAGHETTI STRINGS book trailer
​Check out the Special Event Photo Gallery

RECENT PRESS:
1. Nevada SCBWI features an article by Jen about SPAGHETTI STRINGS
2. SPAGHETTI STRINGS is included on these reading lists:
MN Public Radio's 2017 summer reading list!
Book Riot's 100 MG Books to Read this Summer!
Outnumbered 3 to 1's 12 Summer Reads for Middle Graders!

CRITICAL PRAISE:
“Poignant and full of life and heartache … and wishing and dreaming … and pain and exuberance. Steffy’s voice is honest and clear, young and yet deeply tuned in; she is a real girl, right here and now, a girl readers will want to befriend.”
           - Amy Hest, New York Times bestselling author of Kiss Good Night

 ​“Steffy made me want to cook a big bowl of pasta and sit down for dinner with my loved ones.”
           - Suzanne LaFleur, author of Beautiful Blue World and Love, Aubrey

"This joyous, heartfelt and achingly real novel is as satisfying as a plate of Steffy's homemade ghocchi."
​           - Heather Vogel Frederick, author of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series
Next to Mexico was published in 2008.
​Lylice will never go to fifth grade. She gets to skip it. On her first day of sixth grade, however, an avalanche of bad hits her:  her principal doesn't like her, she is the shortest one in school, and all of the other students already have friends. But when Senora Schwartz assigns her to be Mexico Mendoza’s English Buddy, school gets a little better. Set in Tucson, AZ, this is the story of two girls finding each other in their own loneliness, and learning what it means to be a true friend.

CRITICAL PRAISE:
​"Lylice’s enduring compassion for Mexico and sense of moral activism render her an exemplary and very human character."  - Kirkus reviews

"[Lylice's] passionate, enthusiastic voice and humor help to gather up the many subplots into a happy ending."  - School Library Journal

"Lylice will make you smile 'til your cheeks hurt."  ​- Time Out New York

SCHOOL VISITS and EVENTS
Upcoming events
April, 2018: Janco Books, Las Vegas, NV
May, 2018:  Mannion Middle School, Las Vegas, NV
May, 2018:  Greensboro Bound Literary Festival, Greensboro, NC
June, 2018: Summit on YA Lit in the Classroom, Las Vegas, NV
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Past events include
 Nevada Reading Week Conference, North Valleys High School, Reno, NV
Vegas Valley Book Festival - Las Vegas, NV
Writer's Block Bookshop EXPO - Las Vegas, NV
Kidlitcon - Hershey, PA
Mark Fine Elementary School - Las Vegas, NV
Faiss Middle School - Las Vegas, NV
PowderKeg Writers Space - Brooklyn, NY
Adelson Educational Campus - Las Vegas, NV
Hearsay Culture Interview, Stanford University Radio
Hunter College Elementary School, New York, NY
CUE Arts Foundation, New York, NY
Peoples Improv Theater, New York, NY
Drama Bookshop, New York, NY
​Brooklyn Public Library, Carroll Gardens Branch, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Girls Leadership Institute, Berkshires, MA
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Springfield, MA
Parker School, Devons, MA
Watkinson School, Hartford, CT
Burkholder Middle School, Las Vegas, NV
Frank Lamping Elementary School, Las Vegas, NV
​Halle Hewetson Elementary School, Las Vegas, NV
William E. Snyder Elementary School, Las Vegas, NV
​Texas Book Festival, Austin, TX