"Jacquelyn Mitchard is an engaging and warm speaker. With humor and humanity, she is able to inspire the audience and touch both your heart and your soul. She has a way of bringing out your best emotions and her spirit and laughter are contagious. When you leave her lecture, you will have a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. She's wonderful! "
— Jeanne Oates Angulo, Former Chapter President, National Capital Chapter, National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Jacqueline Mitchard
Author: The Deep End of the Ocean
Speaking topics: Empowerment Entertainment Success

Jacquelyn Mitchard’s first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was named by USA Today as one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years – second only to the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (but second by a long shot, it must be said.)
The Deep End of the Ocean was chosen as the first novel in the book club made famous by the TV host Oprah Winfrey, and transformed into a feature film produced by and starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
All of Mitchard’s novels have been greater or lesser bestsellers – and include The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Twelve Times Blessed, The Breakdown Lane and Cage of Stars. Critics have praised them for their authentic humanity and skilful command of story. Readers identify because they see reflected, in her characters – however extreme their circumstances – emotions they already understand.
Mitchard’s first story of adventure and her eighth novel of realistic contemporary fiction is Still Summer (August, 2007). In the same month, the paperback version of her most critically acclaimed novel, Cage of Stars (August 2007), appears from Warner Books.

Topics

Healing Through Creativity

The Conflict Between Work and Family

The Writing Life

Raising Gifted and Learning Disabled Children

Families Surviving Cancer

Fiction and Society

The Role of Libraries in American Culture

The Deep End of the Ocean
The horror of losing a child is somehow made worse when the case goes unsolved for nearly a decade, reports Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Jacquelyn Mitchard in this searing first novel. In it, 3-year-old Ben Cappadora is kidnapped from a hotel lobby where his mother is checking into her 15th high school reunion. His disappearance tears the family apart and invokes separate experiences of anguish, denial, and self-blame. Marital problems and delinquency in Ben's older brother (in charge of him the day of his kidnapping) ensue. Mitchard depicts the family's friction and torment--along with many gritty realities of family life--with the candor of a journalist and compassion of someone who has seemingly been there. International publishing and movie rights sold fast on this one: It's a blockbuster. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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