Teaching was Aline Alexander Newman’s first profession. Over the years, she has taught full-time, part-time, adult education, and as a substitute for every level from pre-K to12. And she’s done it in her own classroom, college classrooms, jailhouse activity areas, and factory lunchrooms. For six years, she taught Consumer Homemaking for Disadvantaged Adults out of a specially equipped mobile classroom that she steered all over the back roads of Herkimer County, NY.
As a new teacher, with a Master of Science degree in education from Syracuse University, Newman published two articles in a professional journal. After that, she and Theresa Phillips co-authored an innovative high school textbook called Choosing a Marriage Partner (Homemaking Research Institute) that was composed of learning activities packets. “I’ve always loved kids,” says Newman, who has two sons of her own. While they were growing up, she taught Sunday School, was a longtime 4-H leader, and served as a Little League scorekeeper.
Winning a statewide essay contest led Newman to begin submitting to consumer magazines. Since then, her credits include over 300 stories, articles, and newspaper columns in publications like Guideposts, Boys Life (now Scout Life), and Highlights for Children. Known for her true “animal anecdotes,” Newman has written over 50 articles for National Geographic Kids magazine. Most of those appeared on the cover.
Writing about animals comes naturally, since she hails from an animal-loving family. A veterinarian cousin once owned a pet elephant, while another cousin spent two years in Gombe Stream, Tanzania, following chimps for Jane Goodall. Some of Newman’s titles even include characters—like a loon tangled in fishing line, a rascally rabbit, and an abandoned dog—drawn from her own life.
But kids and animals aren’t her only interest. She has been writing and ghostwriting inspirational stories for the Guideposts family of magazines—which includes Mysterious Ways, Angels on Earth, All Creatures, and Guideposts—since 1994.
Besides being a writer, Newman continues to utilize her teaching experience by speaking to kids (and adults) both in-person and via videoconferencing. Her programs are engaging, varied, and interactive. On a personal note, Newman is a wife, mother, and grandmother of four. She and her husband, Neil, and their rescue dog Moose, divide their time between an old farmhouse in northern New York and a seasonal camp in the Adirondack Mountains.
Her awards include:
- 1994 Silver Bay Award for Children’s Literature
- 1996 Highlights for Children Pewter Plate Award for Biography Feature of the Year
- 1999 Ed Press Distinguished Achievement Award
- 2002 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Non-Fiction
- 2012 and 2013 American Society of journalists and Authors (ASJA) Outstanding Children’s Book Award
- 2013 and 2015D.V.M. Finalist for the Animal Behavior Society’s Outstanding Children’s Book Award
- 2013 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Top Ten List of Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers
- 2014 Animal Behavior Society’s Outstanding Children’s Book Award
- 2015 International Literacy Association’s Children’s Choices Reading List
- 2015 Finalist for the Children’s Choice Award
