Eager Star

Dandi won her first writing contest as a 10-year-old tomboy. Her 50 words on "Why I Want to Be Batboy for the Kansas City A's" won first place, but the team wouldn't let a girl be batboy. It was her first taste of rejection.

Since then, Dandi Daley Mackall has become an award-winning author of nearly 500 books for adults and children of all ages, with sales of 4 million copies in 22 countries. MY BOYFRIENDS' DOGS is now a Hallmark movie. THE SILENCE OF MURDER won the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Her picture books range from rock and roll, ROCK AWAY GRANNY! to legends and history, like Legend of Ohio, Legend of Saint Nicholas, Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story, FLIPSIDE STORIES, showing the same story from different points of view. Awards include: Notable Book; Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People National Council of Social Studies; Children's Book Council; the Angel Award; Award of Excellence from Chicago Book Show; Christian Book of the Year; Mom's Choice Awards & Amelia Bloom Award. Eva Underground, Harcourt young adult novel, nominated ALA Best Book with starred reviews, awarded a Top Teen Read by New York Public Library, finalist for Ohioana Award, was based on the author's experiences behind the Iron Curtain. Love Rules was awarded Romantic Times' Top Pick. Middle-grade fiction, Larger-than-Life Lara, which teaches how to write, while tackling the problem of bullying, made the KY Bluegrass Award List, William Allan White Award list, KS, Delaware, and KY Children's Choice lists. Her Winnie the Horse Gentler series has sold over half a million books and Starlight Animal Rescue is a Gold Medallion finalist. Dandi received the Helen Keating Ott Award for distinguished contribution toward promoting high moral and ethical values in children and young adult literature. She also received the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2008 from the University of Missouri.

Dandi is a national speaker, keynoting at conferences and Author events, and has made dozens of appearances on TV, including ABC, NBC, and CBS