Amy Ignatow is an American author, illustrator, and cartoonist who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. She is best known for the children's book series, The Popularity Papers

The Popularity Papers

The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang is a children's book written and illustrated by Amy Ignatow and published in 2010. It is more commonly known simply as The Popularity Papers.To date, two sequels have been...

.

Personal life

Ignatow was born and raised in Huntington, New York

Huntington, New York

The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...

, on Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

. She graduated from Huntington High School

Huntington High School (New York)

Huntington High School is a four-year, public secondary school located in Huntington, New York. It functions as the high school for the Huntington Union Free School District, serving students in Huntington...

 in 1995. She attended SUNY Oneonta and later transferred to study illustration

Illustration

An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...

 at Moore College of Art and Design

Moore College of Art and Design

Moore College of Art & Design educates students for careers in the visual arts. Moore is an independent college of art and design. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Moore is the first and only women's visual arts college in the nation, and one of only two in the world...

 in Philadelphia, graduating magna cum laude in 2002.

Her brother is the sociologist and professor Gabe Ignatow. The poet David Ignatow

David Ignatow

-Life:David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He died on November 17, 1997, at his home in East Hampton, New York. His papers are held at University of California, San Diego.-Career:...

 is a cousin of hers.

Professional career

Her first book, The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, was published by Amulet Books in spring 2010. Positive reviews of the book appeared in The New York Times, School Library Journal, and other publications and review web sites, such as KidLiterate.

The second book in the series, The Popularity Papers: The Long-Distance Dispatch Between Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, was released in March 2011. The third book in the series, The Popularity Papers: Words of (Questionable) Wisdom from Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang was released in October 2011, according to Amulet Books.

According to her author biography, Ignatow has worked as a teacher, a farmer, a florist, a short-order vegan cook, a ghostwriter for Internet personal ads, a telefundraiser, a wedding singer, and an air-brush face and body painter.

External links

• Amy Ignatow's web site.
• Abrams Books' page for The Popularity Papers, with autobiographical material.