Shoreline author releases two children's biographies

Jennifer Phillips started out as a newspaper reporter, switched to corporate communications and now splits her energy between health care improvement projects and freelance writing, especially for children. She loves learning about new things, including historical figures, and has more ideas than time. She lives in Shoreline with one husband, two girls and one bird.

Elijah Lovejoy’s Fight for Freedom tells the life story of abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy. Two decades before the Civil War, Lovejoy used his Midwestern newspapers, first in St. Louis and then in the Illinois river town of Alton, to call for an end to slavery. His beliefs were dangerous enough. Taking his cause public proved deadly. Angry mobs destroyed his printing equipment three times. Then, two days before he turned 35, a mob shot and killed Elijah as he defended a fourth press.

The biography is most suitable for grades 5-8 and includes historical images from the archives of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. A paperback version is available through Amazon (ISBN is 978-0-615-31689-5) and eBook versions are available through Amazon (Kindle) or outlets such as Smashwords (for other electronic formats).

Nina Kosterina: A Young Communist in Stalinist Russia. Nina was born in a revolutionary camp as the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1920s. She beat the odds of survival during the harsh early years and emerged in the 1930s as a young Communist woman in love with her country, her family, her city, her friends, politics, art and life. Even when Joseph Stalin’s regime tore apart her family and imprisoned her father, she remained loyal to her country and joined an elite group of young women turned guerilla soldiers when the Germans invaded Russia in 1941.

Nina perished in a Nazi ambush behind enemy lines. After the war, her family found her diary hidden in a wardrobe. Years later, the diary was released as a book and became an international bestseller. Written from ages 15 to 20, the diary revealed a teenager transforming into an adult juxtaposed against one of the most dangerous and tumultuous periods in world history.

Nina’s biography, written for young adult readers, is available as an eBook through its publisher, along with other outlets such as Amazon and Fictionwise. The ISBN is 978-1-59431-782-8.

Readers will find more materials related to both biographies, including photos provided by Nina Kosterina’s family, on Phillips’ website. Phillips is available for classroom discussions (in person within Washington and virtually for other parts of the country) about either biography subject or the process of researching and writing these books.