Contributors

Jacqueline Bodnar is a professional writer who blogs about vegetarian issues at VegBlogger.com. She and her husband have been ethical vegetarians since 1995 and are raising two vegetarian children. She is also a nature lover, environmentalist, and avid reader. Jacqueline is a Michigan native, who now resides in Florida, after spending almost a decade in Las Vegas. Jacqueline has written dozens of reviews for Vegbooks, including Make and Eat Vegetarian Food, Here Comes the Garbage Barge, So, You Love Animals, and Diary of a Worm.

Heather Clark lives in the midwest with her husband and son. She manages websites for a living and regularly writes about veg and animal issues, among other topics, on her blog at http://unsheeply.net. She won our 500th Review Contest with her review of The Octonauts and the Great Ghost Reef, and has since reviewed Look! Another Book! and We’re Sailing to Galapagos.

Michael Croland runs heebnvegan, a Jewish blog about animal protection issues, and he has taught an animal rights class at Carnegie Mellon University. He is pursuing a masters degree in publishing at NYU. Read his post, “Eating Animals and Reading About Them.”

Jane Cowles writes, “Even though I have been drawing all my life, I feel my journey has just begun. I have rediscovered myself as an artist and writer. After receiving a degree in Art and English from Drew University, I became a tax attorney by day. Only to discover that I am passionate about art and writing. It is the path I must follow for I feel it deep within my soul.” She has a knack for finding kids books that are sometimes offbeat and entertaining, but always noteworthy, including Seashells by the Seashore, Invisible Alligators, One Cool Friend and A Meal of the Stars: Poems Up and Down. She recently published her first children’s book, Mama Blue.

Ben DeVries lives with his wife Cheryl, a childhood educator, their toddler Jadon, and three adopted cats (Baby, Missy and Bitsy) in southeastern Wisconsin. He founded Not One Sparrow, a Christian voice for animals after completing his final seminary project on a Christian foundation for caring for animals in 2008. Ben blogs regularly at Not One Sparrow and is a contributor at SustainLane’s Creation Care community. Read his reviews of Little Colt’s Palm Sunday and The Story of the Easter Robin.

Kaitlyn Aiyana Enstice is 10 years old and attends elementary school, where she is in the fourth grade. She likes to read, use her imagination, play soccer and tennis, swim, and play with Java, her family’s companion rabbit. She is an animal lover and is a talented singer and dancer. She lives with her sister, Gabriella, her mom, Brenda, and her dad, Tim. Tim Enstice has been with the PETA Foundation for 10 years. As the director of gift planning, Tim oversees the entire gift-planning department and is also the person behind PETA’s plan to ensure that people have a way to help animals well beyond their lifetime here on Earth. Read their review of A Chimpanzee Tale.

Katrina Donovan Fleming is a writer, teacher, artist, gardener, musician, and returned Peace Corps volunteer. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and two cats and writes a blog called Suburban Snow White, where she muses on creating and enjoying an animal-friendly life. She has reviewed a number of books for Vegbooks, including You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together, The Monsters’ Monster, The Lorax and Nighttime Ninja .

Molly Frisinger works in academic publishing. She writes a blog about vegan life in Texas at Lone Star Plate and considers herself a lifelong friend of Sunny Day Farms. She is currently working on the first ever Texas VegFest in Austin, Texas. Read her review of A Christmas Horse Named Cairo.

Jennifer Gannett lives outside of New York City with her family. A long-time environmentalist, in her free time she enjoys cooking and eating mouthwatering vegan fare and advocating for animals in need. Jennifer has reviewed a wide variety of books and movies for Vegbooks, including The Last Polar Bear, The Curious Garden, The Great Chicken Escape, and”Ice Age.” In addition to her fantastic reviews, Jennifer coordinates outreach for Vegbooks.

Jennifer Kali and her wife are biracial vegetarian moms of school aged children (a boy and a girl) living in the DC metro area with a rescued pug. They love to read books and watch movies with their children and are always looking for diverse media that supports their life philosophy – be kind to all living things. Jennifer regularly contributes to Vegbooks. Among her reviews are “The Bee Movie,” Dolphin Tale: The Junior Tale, and Yertle the Turtle. 

Sandi Lancaster loves to read, and especially loves to read to her children, Amelia and Corey. Sandi and her husband Brian are long-time vegans, and Amelia and Corey have been vegan since birth. They live in Germantown, MD, which is somewhat warmer than the Buffalo NY weather that Sandi grew up with. Sandi works as a speech pathologist, and in her free time, in addition to reading, she enjoys going for walks, playing cards, and spending time with her family. Read her reviews of Apple, Momo Come Home, Pigs Make Me Sneeze and Harry by the Sea.

Huyen MacMichael is a stay-at-home mom, artist, and art therapist. She feels lucky to have found the sweetest rescued blue tick coonhound at the local no-kill shelter. She is raising her daughter vegan with her husband Ryan of Vegblog.org. As a mom, she enjoys the opportunity to read large quantities of children’s books to her daughter. As an advocate for the creative process, she appreciates a well-told and well-illustrated story. Huyen brings an artist’s eye to all of the books she reviews, including Too Many Pears, Pete and Pickles, Hero Cat and Lucky Boy.

Maureen McDowell loves to travel, write, and paint. Always fond of farm animals, she became vegan in 2006, and she and her husband Craig raise their children as such. She and Craig volunteer for the Animal Protection and Rescue League. Read her reviews of What’s in My Garden? and The Carrot Seed.

John McIntyre writes for Healthy Juicing, a site where you can discover the amazing benefits of juicing and taste incredible juicing recipes. Read his review of Cows Are Vegetarians.

Robyn Moore lives in New York City with her husband and their two kids. She has a master’s degree in elementary education and is currently pursuing another one in Humane Education. She has a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University, and is the organizer of the NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Families Meetup. Robyn has volunteered helping wildlife in South Africa, taught English in Nepal, and lived abroad in Switzerland. In addition to everything else going on in her life, Robyn has reviewed a number of children’s books for Vegbooks, including I’ll Always Be Your Friend, Mixed Beasts, My Friend Whale, and Give Us a Chance.

Carolyn Merino Mullin works extensively with youth, leading educational programs and outreach efforts, and collaborates with nonprofit institutions (Farm Sanctuary, Miami Children’s Museum, AmeriCorps) to incorporate humane education principles. She is the founder and executive director for the National Museum of Animals & Society. Still a kid at heart, she can’t resist an enchanting children’s tale — something the readers of her reviews of children’s books, including Max Goes to the Recycling Center, Farmer Duck, My Mom Eats Tofu and That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals, can’t help but appreciate.

Lisa Onykahonie has been vegetarian for over 20 years and lives in the UK with her husband and 2 vegetarian children. She works as a teaching assistant and writes a vegetarian family food blog in her spare time. Read her reviews of The Whales’ Song and Tyrannosaurus Drip.

Marsha Rakestraw juggles a plethora of projects for the Institute for Humane Education, including blogging about humane issues at the Humane Connection blog. She also volunteers as a humane educator and as the Vice-President and Education/Outreach Coordinator for Northwest VEG in Portland, Oregon. When not working to make the world a better place, hanging with her husband, or entertaining her precocious puppy and schizophrenic cat, she tries to shorten the perpetual stack of books at her bedside. Having worked as a youth librarian for 14 years has given her a fondness for good children’s books.  She has brought this perspective to bear on her reviews of a number of books, including Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming, Big Bear Hug, Souperchicken and The Great Pig Escape.

Amy Sharp is a working mom raising two vegan children and she has not yet given up on the idea that everyone should try to make the world a better place. In her free time, Amy loves to spend time with her family and friends, meet new people, and eat yummy vegan food. Read her review of the movie “The Lorax.”

Diane Vukovic is a vegan mom, sculptress, US expat, and the founder of PlenteousVeg.com, a website which gives straight-forward nutritional advice about how to be a healthy vegan in a meat-eater’s world.  When she isn’t deducing veggie nutritional facts, she is probably dancing crazily with her daughter, traveling somewhere in Eastern Europe, or hosting a vegan potluck.

Kristin Wald lives in Northern New Jersey with her husband and two children. She also writes for local website Baristanet and trains student teachers for Rutgers University. With a background in education and over a decade of teaching high school English in Brooklyn, Kristin focuses on encouraging families to read at home and works with organizations to promote literacy and access to books for all children. She has reviewed several books for Vegbooks, including Presidential Pets, Eye of the Wild: Cheetah and Gorilla, The Giant Book of Giants and Cassandra’s Angel.

Homa Woodrum and her husband are both Nevada attorneys and parents of a girl (5) and a boy (3). They have both been ethical vegetarians for many years. Their daughter has multiple food allergies, a list that has been changing and currently includes peanuts, tree nuts, oats, and sesame. Homa blogs about allergy friendly cooking and family activities Oh Mah Deehness!, named after her daughter’s former way of saying “oh my goodness,” though her blogging has slowed down since returning to active legal practice in 2012 and launching her own law firm in 2014. Originally from the U.K., Homa has lived in such far flung places as Alaska before settling in Las Vegas, Nevada. She’s got a knack for discovering some of the most surprising veg-friendly books, and she’s reviewed a number of books for Vegbooks, including Whooo Loves You?, One Red Apple, The Bugabees: Friends with Food Allergies and The Book About Moomin, Mymble, and Little My.

Sharon Young, a life-long animal lover, a vegetarian and a mom, has 3 rescued dogs and gently puts all spiders outside. She has worked for The Humane Society of the United States for 15 years. Read her review of The Lady and the Spider.

Andrea Zollman is a homeschooling mom, a part-time academic librarian, and an aspiring novelist. A vegetarian for many years before adopting a vegan diet in 2000, she lives with her husband and her son, who are vegan, too, making for much harmony in their home. As a librarian, she loves finding books that are well written and appropriate for vegan and vegetarian children. She has reviewed several books for Vegbooks, including Mardy Murie Did!: Grandmother of Conservation, Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale, Please Don’t Tease Tootsie and Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey.

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