Lawrence R. Sipe was a professor in the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education for 16 years, where he taught courses in children's and adolescent literature and conducted research on young children's responses to picturebooks. He taught in primary and elementary classrooms for six years, including a two-year stint in an isolated one-room school in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. He also was the coordinator of professional development for K-6 teachers for a school board in Newfoundland for 13 years. His Ph.D. is in Children's Literature and Emergent Literacy from Ohio State University, where he studied with Janet Hickman, who was herself a student of Charlotte Huck. His awards include Outstanding Dissertation of the Year from the International Reading Association, the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the College Reading Association, the Promising Researcher Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Early Career Achievement Award from the National Reading Conference. He also won several awards for teaching, including the Teaching Excellence Award for the province of Newfoundland, the Graduate School of Education Teaching Award, and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Pennsylvania. He was the North American editor of the journal Children's Literature in Education. His book, STORYTIME: YOUNG CHILDREN'S LITERARY UNDERSTANDING IN THE CLASSROOM, was published in 2008 by Teachers College Press.
