Rajani LaRocca - Click to see all titles by this author.

“Books helped me consider what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes.”

Newbery Honor winner Rajani LaRocca was born in India and raised in Kentucky, where she was an omnivorous reader. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she is a doctor and omnivorous writer of books for young readers – fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry.

“Medicine and writing have much in common: both focus on people – people who can be brave and horrible, foolish and wonderful, and everything in between. My love for people is at the heart of both my careers.”

Rajani believes that promoting diversity in children’s literature leads to empathy, and empathy makes the world a better place. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science, and just about everywhere she looks. She also cohosts the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast.

Rajani lives outside Boston with her wonderful husband, two brilliant kids, and an impossibly cute dog.