Mara Rockliff

Rockliff considers herself a "research geek." She studies interviews, newspapers, oral histories, and primary source materials to create her books, and also includes a list of primary sources in her history books. Rockwell got the idea to write Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat when looking through the Jewish Women's Archive. She said, "I realized that out of all these books I've never done one about a Jewish woman, even though I'm a Jewish woman. That seemed like an oversight." Frieda Caplan founded a specialty produce company and introduced foods such as kiwis, baby carrots, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, spaghetti squash, and mangos to consumers in the United States. Rockliff worked with Caplan's daughter to create Try It! which was selected as a 2021 Eureka! Excellence in Nonfiction Award Honor Title by the California Reading Association. It was also selected by Smithsonian magazine as one of the ten best children's books of 2021.

In 2020, Rockliff's book Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope was chosen by the Association of Jewish Libraries for the Sydney Taylor Book Award as a Notable Picture Book. The book is about L. L. Zamenhoff who invented the universal language of Esperanto to bring people together.

In 2017, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children's Book Council (CBC) selected her book, Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles, as a Notable Trade Book for Young People. The NCSS-CBC book review committee selected "books that emphasize human relations, represent a diversity of groups and are sensitive to a broad range of cultural experiences, present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic, are easily readable and of high literary quality, have a pleasing format, and, where appropriate, include illustrations that enrich the text." Around America to Win the Vote was about Alice Burke and Nell Richardson who drove across the United States in 1916, speaking in 26 states to increase support for women’s suffrage.

In 2016, Rockliff's Gingerbread for Liberty: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution was selected as an ALA Notable Children's Book. The book is about Christopher Ludwick, a Philadelphia baker who was too old and portly to fight in the Revolutionary War, but supported General George Washington's army by baking bread for the troops. Rockliff learned of Ludwick in a 1964 magazine article about Pennsylvania Dutch cooking traditions. She says, "That grabbed me right away since it combined fun stuff for kids—sneaky secret agent, gingerbread—with fun historical stuff for parents and teachers. Also, I live in a very German part of Pennsylvania, and my daughter has Hessian ancestors on her father's side, so the topic had special interest to me." Gingerbread for Liberty also won the Garden State Children's Book Award and the Land of Enchantment Book Award.

Also in 2016, her book Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France was selected as an Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book by the National Council of Teachers of English. It also won the Cook Prize from the Bank Street College of Education. The book tells how Benjamin Franklin used the scientific method to debunk the mysterious powers of Franz Mesmer's magic wand. One reviewer noted, "Although the book sounds heavy with facts and theories, the story zips along thanks to Mara Rockliff's lively, dramatic writing that holds even young readers in thrall." A more recent book, 2020's Jefferson Measures a Moose, tells how another founding father, Thomas Jefferson, used math counter misinformation in a book about animals found in the United States. Rockliff says, " I'd just published Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France, and I thought this story could do for math and measurement what Mesmerized did for the scientific method." In addition, she was exploring the concept of misinformation through the lens of current events in 2020.

Rockliff also uses the pen names Eleanor May and as Nan Walker, most notably writing books for the Mouse Math series which now includes more than fifteen titles. The Mouse Math series presents "basic concepts, thinking skills, and reading skills all wrapped up in engaging stories starring mouse siblings Wanda and Albert." Albert the Muffin Maker was the 2014 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Bronze Medalist for Alphabet/Counting.

Rockliff is Jewish. Rockliff lives with her family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is an avid baker and usually includes baked goods in her books. Starting in 2014, she learned Esperanto and uses it daily to talk with people around the world.

In 2013, Rockliff was nominated for the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for her book My Heart Will Not Sit Down. The picture book is about a young girl in Cameroon who tried to raise money to help those who are starving in New York City during the Great Depression. A reviewer noted that My Heart Will Not Sit Down "may motivate youngsters to find their own ways to help people in need."

Mara Rockliff (born 1970) is an American author of nonfiction and educational books for children. The American Library Association selected her book Gingerbread for Liberty! as an ALA Notable Children's Book. She also received the Golden Kite Award for Me and Momma and Big John.

That same year, her book Me and Momma and Big John was nominated for the Charlotte Zolotow Award and won the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. The Charlotte Zolotow Award is the highest honor for writing in children's picture books. The book is about an African American female stonecutter who helped build the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in the 1970s. The New York Times noted, "This is the rare children's book that shows how a building is built with less of an emphasis on cranes and bulldozers and more on the difficult work of laboring hands. But it's not only about the grueling hardness of labor, Me and Momma and Big John is also about the rewards of a labor of love, and of a job well done."