What’s on Your Bookshelf? A Celebration of Middle Grade Books with author Dr. Rajani LaRocca and agent Brent Taylor

Date: 09/25/2021
Time: 10:30 am-11:45 am

Join us on Saturday, September 25, at 10:30 a.m., as children’s book author, podcaster, and physician, Dr. Rajani LaRocca,  and her agent Brent Taylor, senior agent at TriadaUS, celebrate all things middle grade books — from their favorite books to their working relationship and everything in between!

 

Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area with her wonderful family and impossibly cute dog. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she spends her time writing novels and picture books, practicing medicine, and baking too many sweet treats. She is also the cohost of the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast. Her middle grade debut, Midsummer’s Mayhem (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books), an Indian-American mashup of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and competitive baking, was an Indies Introduce selection, an Indie Next pick, a Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2019, and a 2020 Massachusetts Book Award Honor title. Her middle grade novel-in-verse, Red, White, and Whole (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, 2/201), has received multiple starred reviews and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, a Spring 2021 Indie Next Top Ten Title, and a New England Book Award finalist. Her third middle grade novel, Much Ado About Baseball (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books) was featured on the TODAY Show and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection with a Kirkus starred review. Her debut picture book, Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math (Lee & Low) is set in ancient India and introduces the basics of binary numbers. It received multiple starred reviews and is the winner of the 2021 Mathical Book Prize for grades 3-5. She is also the author of the picture books Bracelets For Brothers (Charlesbridge), Where Three Oceans Meet (Abrams), The Secret Code Inside You (Little Bee Books), I’ll Go and Come Back (Candlewick, 2022), Masala Chai, Fast and Slow (Candlewick, 2023), Your One and Only Heart (Dial, 2023), Summer Is For Cousins (Abrams, 2023), and more. Learn more about her at www.RajaniLaRocca.com and on Twitter and Instagram @rajanilarocca.

 

Brent Taylor is a literary agent at Triada US, where he specializes in children’s books. He joined the agency in 2014 as an intern and has since built a robust list of picture books, middle grade, and YA. Some of his other clients include Sayantani DasGupta, Whitney Gardner, K. D. Halbrook, and Louie Zong. In addition to his role as an agent, he oversees audio and foreign rights for the entire agency. Outside of work, some of his favorite things are the beach and ocean; sweet, cheap southern wine; and reading books on porch-swings.

In his next life, Brent wants to be a CIA agent. You can find him on Twitter @btaylorbooks and online at www.btaylorbooks.com.

 

To register for the webinar A Celebration of Middle Grade Books, click here.