Media Kit

Author bios

Short version: Lynne Kelly’s career as a sign language interpreter has taken her everywhere from classrooms to hospitals to Alaskan cruises. Her 2019 novel Song For a Whale, about a deaf girl named Iris who forms an unlikely bond with the “loneliest whale in the world,” has been described as “finely crafted,” “important,” and “uplifting” by reviewers from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and School Library Journal. Song For a Whale received the 2020 Schneider Family Book Award and was named one of the best books of the year by New York Public Library. Her latest book, The Secret Language of Birds, was released in April 2024. Three Blue Hearts, about a boy who cares for an injured octopus, will be out in the Fall of 2025. She lives near Houston, Texas. Find her online at lynnekellybooks.com and on Twitter @lynnekelly.

Long version:  Lynne Kelly’s career as a sign language interpreter has taken her everywhere from classrooms to hospitals to Alaskan cruises. She was born in Galesburg, Illinois, grew up in Houston, lived in some much colder places, then found her way back to the Houston area. For a few years she also taught special education, a good career for someone with excellent organizational and planning skills. Lacking those skills, she quit teaching in 2006 and thankfully has more time for writing. But it was during those teaching years that she worked with some great kids and became interested in writing, so that all worked out. Her 2019 novel Song For a Whale, about a deaf girl named Iris who forms an unlikely bond with the “loneliest whale in the world,” has been described as “finely crafted,” “important,” and “uplifting” by reviewers from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and School Library Journal. Song For a Whale received the 2020 Schneider Family Book Award and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library. Her next novel, The Secret Language of Birds, will be released in April 2024. Find her online at lynnekellybooks.com and on Twitter @lynnekelly.