Occupation educator Nationality United States | Name Phyllis Shalant Role Author | |
Genre children's scholastic books Books Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi, When Pirates Came to, Beware of kissing lizard lips, Great Eye, Look What We'Ve Brought Y | ||
Phyllis Shalant (born 1949) is an American author of both fiction and non-fiction children's scholastic books.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Shalant has a B.A. from Brooklyn College, 1971 and an M.A. from Manhattanville College, 1997. She is currently a Professor of children's writing at Manhattanville College in New York. She is a prolific author of scholastic children's books. She focuses on teaching creative writing to children and adults. Her debut work was The Rock Star, the Rooster, & Me, the Reporter She is most recently the author of The Society of Super Secret Heroes which was published by Dutton Children's Books, A Division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Shalant focuses almost exclusively on pedagogical writing. She conducts writer's workshops intended specifically for elementary school age children.
The Society of Super Secret Heroes is a children's book intended for the 4th-6th grade level. Finch Mundy is the main character. He and his three best friends, Rajiv Shah, a magician, Kevin Chan an artist and Elliott Levenson, who loves to joke around. The once dormant "Thinking Cape", acquired by Finch in Kindergarten, takes on magical powers and purports to “turn ordinary mortals into extraordinary ones.” They embark on several “missions,” where the boys have to take on the class bullies, and help a new teacher make friends. The Thinking Cape guides the boys on how to approach these problems. The boys face a real test as superheroes when the Thinking Cape disappears.