“I’m bored!” ~ How many times have you heard that (or even said it yourself!). For author Pendred “Penny” Noyce, it is the beginning of a magical journey. In her book for  Lost in Lexicon cousins Ivan and Daphne are on a treasure hunt to in a land where numbers and letters run wild. Together, with their pet thesaurus, they hope to find the lost children of Lexicon.

So where did Penny get such an idea of magical lands and lost children? “When I was a child, I wanted more than anything to go to C.S. Lewis’s land of Narnia. My sister and I probed dark closets, leaped over rivers, and ran down hills with our eyes closed, calling on Aslan to transport us to that magical world.”

Dr. Penny Noyce studied grew up in California, but came East for college. She earned a BS in biochemistry at Harvard University. She returned to California to earn her medical degree and finish her residency, but the East Coast called her back. She returned to the Boston area, where she practiced at a community health center.

In 1991, she helped establish the Noyce Foundation in honor of her father, Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit and co-founder of Intel. The foundation focuses on improving K-12 education, particularly in mathematics and science.

As her interest in education – and raising five children – grew, she withdrew from practicing medicine. She worked to improve math and science standards of learning for students in Massachusetts. When her children went off to college, Penny began writing for children. And, no  surprise, likes to weave in those magical moments that learning offers us all.

Please welcome Penny Noyce to the Spotlight!

MCA: Welcome to the spotlight Dr. Noyce! Can you please tell us about what motivated you to create Lost in Lexicon?
Penny: My son, who loves words and numbers, inspired me.

At bedtime he was just as happy to do logic puzzles together as to have me read with him.  I wanted to write an innocent story for strong readers who like to play with ideas, and I wanted to bring middle school concepts in mathematics and language to life in a way that would make kids laugh and keep them reading.

MCA: We recently read on your blog that you’ve already made two resolutions for 2012. Now that you’ve added an award-winning product to your portfolio, do you have any other goals to add?
Penny:  This year I am launching a new company, Tumblehome Learning, to engage children in the excitement of science and engineering through mysteries and adventure books accompanied by home experiments and online activities.

My first book for the new Galactic Academy of Science line will be called The Desperate Case of the Diamond Chip. I also look forward to a successful launch of the second Lexicon book, The Ice Castle: an Adventure in Music. (Fall 2012)

MCA: Have you thought about ways your Mom’s Choice Award® will help you attain your goals? Could you share three of them with us?
Penny: Really, I have only one. I hope the Mom’s Choice Award® will help me by introducing my book to new audiences, acting as an endorsement of the book’s quality, and inspiring me to keep creating the best products for kids.

MCA: Can you share with us what you learned about yourself as a writer and entrepreneur in creating your award-winning product?
Penny: I’ve written for many years, but this was the first project that came to me in a delightful flow from beginning to end.  I learned that kids are my natural audience, that I can be funny, and that many kids are eager for a challenge in their reading.

MCA: Since launching your book, what has been your most rewarding experience in promoting or sharing it with the public? Do you have a favorite memory?
Penny: What I most enjoy is bringing a Lexicon Villages Events to schools or libraries.  Essentially, kids move from station to station doing fun and challenging activities with words, shapes, and measurement.  They may/may not have an adult helping them … I designed it to be a very flexible way to bring the story to life and add to learning, too.

One of my favorite memories is doing such an event on a sleeting night at a school in Brookline, Massachusetts.  We were mobbed by kids and their parents from grades four, five, and six who were truly excited to be interacting with an author.

MCA: As a new honoree, do you have any questions you’d like some of the “old hands” to answer for you?
Penny: How have you leveraged your award to get the best publicity and awareness of your product?

MCA: That is always  a great question! There are so many ways to use your Mom’s Choice Award® to give you an edge! So tell us alumni … how have you gotten more publicity?

Mom’s Choice Awards® Honors

[amazon_link id=”0983021929″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers[/amazon_link] by Pendred Noyce
illustrated by Joan Charles
Scarletta Press, 2011

2011 – Juvenile Level 2 (9-12), Fiction

Contact, Connect and Network with Penny

The Alumni Spotlight is a periodic feature on the official Mom’s Choice Awards® blog. It is part of our ongoing effort to “shine the spotlight” on you and your award-winning, family-friendly products, services, and media.