About the Author Caroline Brewer

What's in the book The Jelani Tree? Click here to find out more.

How did the book The Jelani Tree begin? Find out more.

For a special message from the Artist of the Jelani Tree, click here.

About the author

If there’s one thing you should know about Caroline Brewer, it’s that she takes risks, loves to laugh, is irrepressibly optimistic, and almost too darn passionate about everything she does. Okay, so that’s more than one thing.

Here’s more. In the summer of 2001, Caroline threw away her old, comfortable life as an award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-nominated newspaper columnist in exchange for becoming founder and CEO of Unchained Spirit Enterprises, a motivational and educational publishing and seminar company. Caroline specializes in making presentations to children, parents, and teachers about creative ways to inspire more reading.

Unchained Spirit also gives life to Caroline’s books. Her first, which was partly inspired by the tragic events of 9/11/2001, is “Kara Finds Sunshine on a Rainy Day.” Entirely illustrated by elementary school children, this book of hope sold more than 11,000 copies by December 2004 and has been shared with more than 75,000 children and adults across the U.S., and in Bermuda, Haiti, England, Japan, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

I remember thinking, I wish I could halt these tears. I wish something could lift this sadness from our hearts, Carol’s and Andrew’s and the rest of the family’s hearts.

The Jelani Tree is Caroline Brewer’s fourth book. Others include Kara Finds Sunshine on a Rainy Day, Kara and Friends Meet Abraham Lincoln and Head Start: Our Kind of Place, which has a companion CD. Forthcoming is a book about giants.