Sally Hobart Alexander

Sally Hobart Alexander is an American writer of children's literature. She is best known for her books about her experiences as a blind person.

Born in 1943 in Owensboro, Kentucky, she was educated at Bucknell University. After her undergraduate degree, Alexander taught third-grade students in Southern California, when a rare disease caused her to lose her eyesight. She told "Contemporary Authors", "I was unhappy to leave that last year [of my teaching] , when my visual difficulties began. I entered an excellent training program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for newly blinded adults. For a year afterward, I taught at the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind. Then I entered graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and obtained a master's degree in social work. For three years I was a child therapist at St. Francis Hospital." She embarked on a writing career in children's fiction with the publication of her first book, "Mom Can't See Me", in which Alexander depicts a loving family that has learned to cope with having a blind parent.

Alexander teaches literature and writing in the Chatham University Master of Fine Arts Program in Children’s and Adolescent Writing.

Books

* "Mom Can't See Me", fiction (New York: Macmillan, 1990).
* "Sarah's Surprise", fiction (New York: Macmillan, 1990).
* "Mom's Best Friend", fiction (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
* "Maggie's Whopper", fiction (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
* "Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness ", nonfiction (New York: Macmillan, 1994).
* "On My Own: The Journey Continues", nonfiction (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).
* "Do You Remember the Color Blue? And Other Questions Kids Ask about Blindness", nonfiction (New York: Viking, 2000).
* "She Touched the World: Laura Bridgman, Deaf-Blind Pioneer", (co-author with Robert Alexander) nonfiction (New York: Clarion Books, 2008).

ources

"Contemporary Authors Online". The Gale Group, 2003. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000119400.

External links

* [http://personal.chatham.edu/faculty/SAlexander/ Sally Hobart Alexander website]