Dashka Slater

OK
About Dashka Slater
When I was little, I liked to tell stories. Both of my parents are writers, and they used to read me stories, and tell me stories, and my mother even used to draw little picture books that were all about me. I started by telling stories to my mother, who wrote them down for me until I was old enough to write them down myself.
Every week I went to the library and checked out as many books as I could carry. Soon I began filling up notebooks writing my own stories. I sent some of what I wrote to the contests at the back of Cricket Magazine, and several of them were published there. From then on I was sure that I would be a writer when I grew up.
It wasn't always easy to make that happen, but somehow I've managed to fulfill my childhood dream. I write books for all ages, from preschooler to adult, as well as long-form magazine articles. You can learn more about me at my website: www.dashkaslater.com
Customers Also Bought Items By
Author updates
Books By Dashka Slater
Winner of the Stonewall Young Adult Literature Award
One teenager in a skirt. One teenager with a lighter. One moment that changes both their lives forever.
Two teenagers growing up in Oakland, California. One, Sasha, was born male but identifies as agender, wears skirts and attends a private school. The other, Richard, is an African American from a poor part of Oakland who attends a rough public school.
They have no reason to meet, except for eight minutes every day, they catch the same bus home. And one day, messing about, Richard spies Sasha napping. He flicks the flame of his lighter to Sasha's skirt, and Sasha wakes up in a ball of flame.
What happens next, as the victim, the perpetrator and the community struggle to come to terms with their sadness and shock, is a story of recovery, reconciliation, forgiveness and, above all, hope. It's about the power of being true to yourself, bravery and the good and bad in all of us.
And, remarkably, it's all true.
Bonjour! Escargot is a beautiful French snail who wants only two things:
1. To be your favorite animal.
2. To get to the delicious salad at the end of the book.
But when he gets to the salad, he discovers that there's a carrot in it. And Escargot hates carrots. But when he finally tries one—with a little help from you!—he discovers that it's not so bad after all!
A charming and interactive picture book ideal for picky eaters and animal lovers alike.
*An Amazon Best Book of the Year and Indie Bestseller!*
In A Book for Escargot, the standalone sequel to Escargot--written by award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author Dashka Slater and illustrated by Sydney Hanson--we follow a funny and charming French snail through a library to find the book of his dreams.
Bonjour!
It is moi, Escargot, your favorite French snail.
Today I am going on a trip to the library, where there are so many stories to choose from!
Stories about dog superheroes…
guinea pig detectives....
and flamingo astronauts.
But sadly, none of these books is about a daring snail hero who saves the day. What is that you say? Perhaps this is the book about the snail hero? Ooh-la-la!
Award-winning author Dashka Slater spins a tale of friendship, magic, and eternal life in The Book of Fatal Errors, an evocative and witty middle-grade fantasy.
Rufus doesn’t just make mistakes – he makes fatal errors. Clumsy and awkward, he feels entrapped by his teasing classmates and their constant laughter. But now it is summer. Rufus is free. He roams the wildlands of his grandfather’s mysterious homestead, blissfully unaware of the danger up ahead.
And there is much danger. Rufus and his snooty cousin Abigail soon become entangled in the tantalizing world of the feylings, mischievous fairly-like creatures desperate to find their way home. In helping the feylings, Rufus tumbles down a dark path rich with age-old secrets and difficult truths. Any move he makes might be his final fatal error.
Or perhaps, his most spectacular beginning.
From New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater comes the whimsical and witty sequel to The Book of Fatal Errors!
Rufus may have successfully sent the feylings home to the Green World, but he still has one pesky feyling under his wing: Nettle, his sometimes enemy, now mentor. Nettle is in charge of helping Rufus and his cousin Abigail protect Feylawn, their grandfather’s magical and mysterious homestead.
But this difficult task becomes even more dangerous when a leopard appears in the woods without warning; strange, waterlogged women arrive to warn of impending doom; and a goblin begins digging his way back to Earth, hungry for revenge. Meanwhile, Rufus’s father is intent on selling Feylawn to the highest bidder. Can Rufus and Abigail save Feylawn and its magic? Or will they have to say goodbye to the feylings forever?
In The Book of Stolen Time, our favorite heroes are back! And magic, mischief, and adventure abound.
Der Bus der Linie 57 ist das einzige, was Sasha und Richard miteinander verbindet. Richard ist Afroamerikaner, geht auf eine öffentliche Schule und hat gerade einen längeren Aufenthalt in einer betreuten Wohngruppe für jugendliche Straftäter hinter sich. Sasha ist weiß, besucht eine Privatschule und identifiziert sich selbst als agender. Nur acht Minuten täglich verbringen Sasha und Richard gemeinsam im Bus 57. Bis zu dem Tag als Sasha den langen weißen Rock trägt und Richard ihn anzündet.
Dashka Slater hat den nachfolgenden Gerichtsprozess monatelang verfolgt, mit Beteiligten gesprochen und die Hintergründe recherchiert. Bus 57 ist die akribische Dokumentation eines berührenden Falles, der tragischen Verstrickung zweier Jugendlicher, die doch nur eines wollen: glücklich sein, trotz allem.
Im Februar 2015 erschien im New York Times Magazine unter der Überschrift The Fire on the 57 Bus ein längerer Artikel der Journalistin Dashka Slater über einen Vorfall, der sich eineinhalb Jahre zuvor in Oakland ereignet hatte. Ein afroamerikanischer Teenager setzt die Kleidung eines Gleichaltrigen in Brand, der genderqueer ist. Sashas und Richards Schicksal ließ Dashka Slater nicht mehr los, so dass aus dem Artikel dieses Buch entstanden ist. Sie erzählt darin von Sashas ungewöhnlicher fantasievoller Kindheit, dem Coming-Out, den Krankenhausaufenthalten, aber auch von der Unterstützung, die Sasha erfährt, nicht nur in der LGBTQ-Community. Genauso sorgfältig arbeitet sie Richards Geschichte auf und wirft einen Blick auf ein Justizsystem, das afroamerikanische Jugendliche anders zu behandeln scheint als weiße. Die Staatsanwaltschaft stuft Richards Tat zunächst als Hate-Crime ein, wodurch ihm ein Verfahren unter Erwachsenenstrafrecht droht und damit eine womöglich lebenslange Haftstrafe.
An inquisitive fox sets off on a seafaring voyage with a crew of deer and pigeons in this enchanting tale of friendship and adventure. Marco the fox has a lot of questions, like: how deep does the sun go when it sinks into the sea? And why do birds have such lizardy feet? But none of the other foxes share his curiosity. So when a magnificent ship adorned with antlers and with a deer for a captain arrives at the dock looking for a crew, Marco volunteers, hoping to find foxes who are as inquisitive as he is that can answer his questions. The crew finds adventure and intrigue on their journey. And, at last, Marco finds the answer to his most important question of all: What’s the best way to find a friend you can talk to?
Princess Amanita laughs in the face of danger. Brakeless bicycles, pet scorpions, spiky plants--that's her thing. So when quiet Prince Florian gives her roses, Amanita is unimpressed . . . until she sees their glorious thorns! Now she must have rose seeds of her own. But when huge, honking noses grow instead, what is a princess with a taste for danger to do?
For readers seeking a princess with pluck comes an independent heroine who tackles obstacles with a bouquet of sniffling noses. At once lovely and delightfully absurd, here's a story to show how elastic ideas of beauty and princesses can be.