Lindsey Stoddard

children’s book author and former middle school teacher; received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts; her books have been named Junior Library Guild Selections, Mighty Girl Best Books, Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books, Bank Street Best Book of the Year, Amazon’s Best Books of the Month, and more

The earliest thing I can remember is dirt jammed beneath my fingernails. My Mom studies the brain, so I know about childhood amnesia. It means we can’t remember anything before the age of three or four. That’s a fact because when I close my eyes and play memory games—Mom gives me a word and I try to connect it to moments I remember as far back ad I can go—the earliest I can ever come up with is the dirt. Everything before that, before I was three, is just a big who-knows.

The dirt jammed under my fingernails when I was three felt good, though. Like it was supposed to be there and I wasn’t my whole self without it.

from Right As Rain by Lindsey Stoddard (Harper Collins)

Upcoming from Lindsey Stoddard: