Rajani LaRocca
A short bio: Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area with her wonderful family and impossibly cute dog. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she spends her time writing novels and picture books, practicing medicine, and baking too many sweet treats. She is also the cohost of the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast. Her middle grade debut, Midsummer’s Mayhem (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books), an Indian-American mashup of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and competitive baking, was an Indies Introduce selection, an Indie Next pick, a Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2019, and a 2020 Massachusetts Book Award Honor title. Her middle grade novel-in-verse, Red, White, and Whole (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, 2/201), has received multiple starred reviews and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, a Spring 2021 Indie Next Top Ten Title, a BookPage Best Middle Grade of 2021, and the winner of the 2021 New England Book Award. Her third middle grade novel, Much Ado About Baseball (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books) was featured on the TODAY Show and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection with a Kirkus starred review. Her debut picture book, Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math (Lee & Low) is set in ancient India and introduces the basics of binary numbers. It received multiple starred reviews and is the winner of the 2021 Mathical Book Prize for grades 3-5 and a Massachusetts Book Award Honor title.
