Molly Beth Griffin has won the $10,000 Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature for her debut YA novel, Silhouette of a Sparrow. The Minesotta-based indie publisher will release the title in September 2012.
Griffin is a writing teacher at the Loft Literary Center. In 2011, she published a picture book called Loon Baby which features illustrations by artist Anne Hunter. Currently, she has projects in-the-works for both picture book and middle grade readers. Follow this link to read Griffin’s blog post on research.

Here’s more from about the book: “Sent to spend the summer with distant relatives at a resort hotel in Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet Richardson—budding ornithologist; reluctant troublemaker; adventurous spirit—quickly compiles a list of all the things she wants to do: sneak into the new amusement park, wander the countryside looking for new birds, and somehow convince her mother to let her attend college. It’s 1926 and Garnet is well aware of the world’s expectations for her: after this summer with her relatives, she is to marry, settle down, and become a housewife. But what no one expects—least of all Garnet—is that she’ll fall in love with the beautiful and daring Isabella, a flapper at the local dance hall.”