"An emotionally honest take on the complexities of (childhood) friendship...
A best best-friend book." —Kirkus starred review
"Here, the loss of a loved one is no grand event, but a fine, gleaming thread in the fabric of everyday life."
—NY Times
"The book reads like a version of Whitman's barbaric yawp."
—NY Times
<< It's wildly alive with the girl's unchecked bursts of word and emotion. The way she grasps at and simultaneously rejects love, wanting to be both acknowledged and left alone, is universal and timeless. The book exposes the slipperiness of what we so much believe to be true coupled with the shortcomings of the English language.... It ends with the exhausted admission, "Somehow even while I am busy hating you … I love you." Tolstoy was after this realization, too, and it took him 1,000 pages.>>
Naomi's recent picture books have been translated into Catalan, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.
Her earlier books are WALK WITH ME, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers (Scholastic/Cartwheel, 1995); SPLISH-SPLASH, illustrated by Elliot Kreloff (BeginSmart, 2008), and IT'S TOT SHABBAT, with photos by Tod Cohen (KarBen, 2011).
Naomi long ago earned a BA and MA in English from Stony Brook University, and an MS in Education from Bank Street College.
She retired as managing editor of Lilith magazine, and lives in Forest Hills, New York.