Trudy Ludwig is an award-winning author who specializes in writing children's books that explore the colorful and sometimes confusing world of children's social interactions.
She has received rave reviews nationwide from educators, experts, organizations, and parents for her passion and compassion in addressing relational aggression – the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others. Ludwig wrote her first book,
My Secret Bully, after her own daughter was bullied by some friends. Since then, she has become a sought-after speaker, presenting at schools and conferences around the country and educating students, parents, and teachers on the topic.
Ludwig's latest book is
The Invisible Boy.
Earlier this month I asked the author about what she was reading. Ludwig's reply:
I thought I’d start off by letting you know what I’ve recently read: Rosalind Wiseman’s Masterminds & Wingmen: Helping Your Son Cope with Schoolyard 
Power, Locker-Room Test, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World. As a mother of a 15-year-oId son, I found Wiseman’s advice both practical and helpful. In her book, Wiseman shares the opinions and viewpoints of boys in upper elementary, middle school, and high school with whom she has collaborated to help readers recognize, appreciate, and understand the challenges boys face in their offline and online social world. It also challenges adults with respect to how our own assumptions and emotional baggage can build up or break down our relationships with boys.
I also thoroughly enjoyed Paperboy, Vince Vawter’s debut novel set in the segregated South in 1959. It’s a powerful coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old boy with a debilitating stutter who discovers new friendships and faces danger when he temporarily takes over his best friend’s paper route for the month of July. I loved the protagonist’s voice in this book! Vawter also did an amazing job putting the reader in the heart and mind of the stuttering boy. It really is a beautiful story that drew me in from page one.
Right now, I’m reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I’m intrigued by this book because I consider myself to be an introvert, 
even though I’m publicly out there in the world, presenting at schools and conferences. This is the kind of book that I like to savor, one chapter at a time, so I can really take in what Cain has to share about how our extrovert-focused society undervalues and underappreciates introverts and why it’s important for introverts to embrace who we are in order to do what we need to do.
Also on my nightstand is Whistle in the Dark, by Susan Hill Long. It’s a middle grade novel set in the 1920’s about a boy named Clem who, at the age of thirteen, has to leave school and join his father and brother in the lead mines of the Ozarks. I’m now about one-third of the way into the story and love it! Long has the knack 
of transporting me to a bygone era and the harsh realities of a child lead miner. A few weeks ago, I went to hear the author speak about her novel at a local bookstore, and I was so intrigued by why she wrote it. Long got the idea for her story when she heard Garrison Keillor talk on NPR about a group of mine workers who were working deep underground, unaware of the fact that their town was being completely destroyed by the great Tri-State Tornado of 1925! What a great premise for a story, don’t you think?
Next up on my nightstand to read are The Second Life of Abigail Walker and The One and Only Ivan.
Visit
Trudy Ludwig's website,
Facebook page, and
Twitter perch.
Read--
Coffee with a Canine: Trudy Ludwig and Hannah.
--Marshal Zeringue
She has received rave reviews nationwide from educators, experts, organizations, and parents for her passion and compassion in addressing relational aggression – the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others. Ludwig wrote her first book, My Secret Bully, after her own daughter was bullied by some friends. Since then, she has become a sought-after speaker, presenting at schools and conferences around the country and educating students, parents, and teachers on the topic.
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