BOOKS

Growing Roots: The New Generation of Sustainable Farmers, Cooks, and Food Activists

National Indie Excellence Awards 2011: Green Living Award for Best Book of the Year; Herman University award for Best Non-Fiction of the Year

A cross-country view of the faces and stories behind the sustainable food movement. Also included are more than 150 simple recipes and photographs that serve up generous portions of hope and mindful action. A book for everyone who cares about the earth and about feeding the people we love!

"Growing Roots introduces us to a few dozen young food pioneers through their words and, even more usefully, their recipes. Think of it as a community cookbook for the food movement."—Michael Pollan

"Katherine Leiner begins a journey that takes her back and forth across the nation interviewing who she now knows is a new breed of young people who find passion in good food."—Alice Waters

"It's a pleasure reading what these people have to say about what they're doing with their lives, and how they spend their days and what they make of their futures. They all have great stories. Taken together they comprise a national sampling of on-the-ground, in the-the trenches food visionaries."—Deborah Madison

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Mama Does the Mambo

(Hyperion, 2001)

with illustrations by Edel Rodriguez

Commendation, 2001 Américas Award for for Children's and Young Adult Literature

Sofia loved to watch her parents dance, her father's back straight and strong, her mother's skirts whipping a million lights. But Papa's been gone a long time now, and Sofia is beginning to wonder if she'll ever see her beautiful mama dance again...

“The resolution is at once bittersweet and exultant. Leiner's achievement is how much she manages to say without words.”—The Hornbook

“Rodriguez’s illustrations, with their soft pastels and sharp black linework, have the transporting power of old postage stamps, getting the atmosphere of Havana just right, as Leiner gently works the chords of familial love, conveying the sense of continuity that does the heart such good.” —Kirkus Reviews

“…an affecting tale…” —Publishers Weekly

First Children: Growing Up in the White House

(Tambourine Books, 1996)

with illustrations by Katie Keller

An insider's look at how the children of seventeen first families dealt with the ups and down of being raised amid the unique environs of the White House, in an informative study complemented by archival illustrations and photographs.

“My Pick of the Year!”—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“Despite a glut of biographies on American politicians, few authors devote books solely to First Children…Ms. Leiner tends to this historical gap with 17 present-tense profiles that nicely balance levity and seriousness.” —Nathalie Op de Beeck, New York Times

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Digging Out

(New American Libary, 2016)

Set against the backdrop of the magnificent Welsh landscape, this is a haunting, inspiring, and heart-lifting novel of loss, family reconciliation, and the healing power of love... When she was eight years old, Alys Davies survived a tragedy in the small Welsh town where she was born. It shattered the village with guilt and stunning disbelief and destroyed her family. Each sought their own private and devastating-escape. For Alys it was to flee to the United States where, far away from the memories, she could rebuild her life, realize her budding career as a poet, and marry. Now, a new tragedy unfolds in Alys's life, forcing her to face her demons. Grieving for her past, Alys decides to return to it. Step by step, she makes the long journey back home to Wales, to embrace the memories of all that she lost, and to finally open herself to love...

"A profoundly moving story that spans past and present, Wales and California, disaster and recovery. The characters become so real it's like having a new family. In language that is both spare and lush, it gathers up tremendous, unexpected losses and finds in them -convincingly- the equally unexpected seeds of hope." —Noelle Oxenhandler, author of The Eros of Parenthood