Mara Rockliff (born 1969 or 1970) is an American author of children's books specializing in works based on true stories.
[1] Her book Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France won an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English.
[2] The American Library Association selected her book Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a Sibert Honor.
[15][16] Booklist selected her book, The Case of the Stinky Socks from the Milo and Jazz series, for “100 Best Children’s and YA Mysteries of the Past 10 Years.
[22] The book is about an African American female stonecutter who helped build the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in the 1970s.
[23][24] Rockliff specializes in historical picture books for children, especially true stories about people who are not included in traditional histories.
[32][25] Her Gingerbread for Liberty (2016) is about Christopher Ludwick, a Philadelphia baker who was too old to fight in the Revolutionary War but supported General George Washington's army by baking bread for the troops.
Also, I live in a very German part of Pennsylvania, and my daughter has Hessian ancestors on her father's side, so the topic had special interest to me.
[1] As a Jewish woman, Rockliff felt it was important to write a book about a Jewish woman like Frieda Caplan, who founded a specialty produce company and introduced kiwis, baby carrots, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, spaghetti squash, and mangos to consumers in the United States.