Thank you for surfing by!
I'm Cynthia Leitich Smith, a children's and young adult book author, who loves to read and hopes you do, too!
September 1998 marked the launch of Cynthia Leitich Smith Children's Literature Resources. It began as a resource site, arising out of my desire to tap into the growing wealth of information about children's books on the Internet.
As my own books have been published, the site expanded to include them.
More recently, my writing has reached towards the young adult audience as well, so you'll also see that emphasis in my latest works and on these online pages.
At the most recent count, this site contained nearly 1000 files, including 267 html pages, 688 images, and nearly 12,000 links to places on the web. It is also one of the most linked-to sites relating to children's and young adult literature on the web.
CynthiaLeitichSmith.com is a labor of love. Every effort is made to update this site on at least a monthly (usually weekly) basis. However, no doubt some mistakes will be spotted and links will be broken. Please report any problems.
Please also note this is a family-friendly site, safe for all ages. Parents, guardians, and children younger than thirteen are asked to review our privacy statement.
Any questions? First, check the FAQs.
“Children's and Young Adult Author Cynthia Leitich Smith Official Web Site” authored by Cynthia Leitich Smith (cynthia@cynthialeitichsmith.com). This web site and all images are Copyright © 1998-2005 by Cynthia Smith, except where noted. All rights reserved.
All photographs featuring authors or illustrators are property of those authors and illustrators; cover art is the property of the illustrator. Permission to provide cover art for promotional purposes only also may have been granted by the author in consultation with the publisher or with a publisher representative.
On the off chance that there has been a miscommunication, illustrators should simply contact me, and I will immediately remove the image with apologies. Every effort has been made to verify permissions. Please see individual pages for additional attributions where relevant.
Cynthia commissioned freelance writer and designer Lisa Firke of Hit Those Keys to give the site a fresh, new look. You are viewing the result.
“With such a large body of really strong content already in place, one major goal was to devise a sure way for users to find that great content, and to show how the parts of the site relate to one another. The tree menu (in the left sidebar) was a fun way to accomplish that.”
“While we were tinkering under the hood, it made sense to upgrade the underlying code to meet the guidelines of the W3C, using valid CSS and HTML.”
“But, most of all, this redesign was about bringing a fun, lively interface to the fore — to make the site as smart and hip as Cynthia herself.”
—Lisa Firke,
December, 2005
Read more about The Story Behind the Redesign at Cynsations.
Update: the site received a special "refresh" in Feb. 2008, as part of the celebration of the site's 10th anniversary.
