Jennifer M. Brown has been in children's books for more than twenty years, and her knowledge is broad and deep. In addition to having been an elementary schoolteacher, Jenny was a children's book editor at HarperCollins and Pleasant Company, and was children's reviews editor at Publishers Weekly for ten years. Jenny currently writes for School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, and is children's editor of Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter for the publishing trade.

Jenny's first boss and lifelong mentor, William C. ("Bill") Morris, introduced her to many of the most innovative librarians and teachers in the nation, and through her work on awards and service committees, Jenny has forged connections to schools and libraries nationwide. She is a graduate of Princeton University.

Jenny started Twenty by Jenny because her friends, family members--even people she'd just met--asked her for book recommendations for the young people in their lives. Children's books are her passion, which she cultivates in her five nieces and nephews (she is still working on her husband, Pat, and her Dachshund/Chihuahua mix, Molly). She lives in New York City.

Her favorite local children's-only independent bookstores are Books of Wonder in the Flatiron District (www.booksofwonder.com), and the Bank Street Bookstore on the Upper Upper West Side (www.bankstreetbooks.com); and for books aimed at adults, she frequents McNally Jackson in SoHo (www.mcnallyjackson.com). She is a proud member of the American Library Association, both ALSC (the Association of Library Service to Children) and YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association), as well as NCTE (the National Council of Teachers of English) and the Bank Street Children's Book Committee, affiliated with the Bank Street College of Education.