Retired elementary teacher Bonnie Shimko of New York has earned acclaim as an author of Young Adult novels. Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Often talented educators also earn acclaim as authors. One of these is Bonnie Shimko, an elementary school teacher from New York who has published five novels for young adults.

Bonnie was born in Plattsburgh, New York, in 1941. She taught school in upstate New York from 1963 to 1994, a career that spanned 33 years. At the time of her retirement in 1994, Bonnie was teaching second grade at Peru Central School.

Upon her retirement from the teaching profession, Bonnie authored five novels for teens and young adults. Her first novel, Letters in the Attic. The book, published in 2002, earned a prestigious Lambda Literary Award. Her other novels include Kat’s Promise, published in 2006; The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye, published in 2010. This third book was named a 2011 Best Book for Young Adults and received two starred reviews. Her fourth book was You Know What You Have to Do, published in 2013, and her most recent novel is Stony Lonesome Road, published in 2015.

“Unlike most authors, I never wanted to be one,” Bonnie once confessed. “Years later, when I retired, I didn’t have enough to do, so I bought a computer, took a class to learn how to use it, and starting writing books. My first novel was published when I was sixty!” she concluded.

To learn more about Bonnie Shimko, see her author page at amazon.com.