About Leigh Lewis

Me and a furry friend at the Houston Rodeo

The earliest existing proof of my storytelling is a book I wrote about my mom’s childhood dog named Otto. I called it… “Otto.” Otto was a dachshund who used to stand up on his hind legs to look out the window, waiting for my mom and her five brothers to come home from playing baseball.

I knew, even at age 6, that this had all the makings of a very good story: love, lots of kids, and dogs. I covered the book in bright red wallpaper found in our very terrifying basement, behind the mattress that my brother and sister and I used as a trampoline, and gave it to my mom for Mother’s Day.

11-year-old me and my pet rabbit, Flash

These days, I tend to write books about girls and women, real and imaginary, who do all kinds of things. Sometimes I like to celebrate actual people who didn’t make it into many history books even though they led incredible lives, and sometimes I like to make up stories about loud kids with big hearts or quiet kids with big thoughts.  

I wrote my debut middle-grade book, Pirate Queens: Dauntless Women Who Dared to Rule the High Seas (National Geographic Kids), because no one had taught me about female pirates when I was a kid, and once I found out they existed, I needed to tell their stories. I also co-wrote 2 board books with my dad. (If you can convince your Mom or Dad to co-write a book with you, do it. You’ll get to see what they would have been like as kids!)

I am represented by the magical Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown, Ltd. even though she is a University of Michigan fan and I’m an Ohio State Buckeye fan. Go Bucks!

My kids and Honest Abe

 

Some fun facts about me:

  • I am a dual citizen of the United States and Turkey.

  • One of my kids was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and two of them in Istanbul, Turkey.

  • When faced with just about any three things I can hold in my hands, I involuntarily begin to juggle.

  • My allergies? Eggplant, cats and cut grass.

  • I worked in Marketing for years, but now I write full-time. I also do a lot of volunteer work, and sometimes teach writing or poetry classes to kids.

  • I can make a clover with my tongue, and I’m double-jointed. I can raise both eyebrows, or my left one, but not my right one. I keep trying, though.

  • In my opinion, nothing beats travel. I’m a nomad at heart.

At a reading of It's Not the Puppy

These are the places I’ve lived, in this order:

  • Columbus, Ohio

  • Moscow, Russia

  • Columbus, Ohio

  • Syracuse, New York

  • Los Angeles, California

  • Columbus, Ohio

  • London, England

  • Santorini, Greece

  • Mykonos, Greece

  • Heidelberg, Germany

  • Columbus, Ohio

  • Istanbul, Turkey

  • Boston, Massachusetts

  • Kobe, Japan

  • Boston, Massachusetts

  • Istanbul, Turkey

  • York, England

  • Houston, Texas

  • Columbus, Ohio (again and finally!)

Beautiful mermaids. I mean, my family.

 

Here are some of my favorites:

  • Quarters, especially randomly found ones

  • The feeling just before an airplane takes off—adventure ahead!

  • Skiing on sunny days

  • Kids’ bookstores

  • Tomatoes eaten straight off the vine in my garden

  • Flossing (teeth. I can only do the dance in serious slo-mo)

  • Board games/card games, especially euchre, Codenames, and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

  • Stacks of books from the library

  • A very cold room with very warm sheets

  • Late nights outside on the porch, the beach, campgrounds, rooftops, a field….

  • Remembering my dreams in the morning

  • Hearing my daughters giggling

  • Getting my hair cut

  • Walking or biking through a city for the first time

  • Paper fortune tellers (we called them cootie catchers, a name I much prefer)

  • Singing at the top of my lungs in the car

  • Catching other people singing in their own car. Bonus points if they are chair dancing

  • Tulips

  • Playing just about any sport. Ping-pong and 4-square count

My kids enjoying Fancy Nancy

Here are some of my least favorites:

  • Bright lights inside the house, early in the morning

  • Not being able to come up with the right ending for a story

  • Beets

  • When people/places don’t recycle

  • Socks that fall down

  • Hearing an ambulance go by

  • Pollen

  • White Chocolate. It’s not chocolate, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!