Ann Behar is a literary agent with the Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. Ann says: “It has always been books for me, even if I veered off my path at times. I majored in English and received my B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1981. I went on to receive an M.A. in English literature in 1982 from the University of Virginia and my J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School in 1985. Things happened quickly after that. My husband began practicing medicine (he is a neurologist) in 1986, and my first daughter was born that August. My second daughter was born 16 months later, and for the next 15 years or so I was a full-time mother and wife. What to do with my degrees stayed on a back burner.

In 2002, with my high school-age daughters half-way out the door, I was ready to go back to work. I found one of the few businesses in the worldÑthe literary agency businessÑwhere an English degree and a law degree are equally valuable.

I joined SCG, learning the business from top to bottom, doing everything from reviewing and negotiating contracts to evaluating manuscripts, with heavy, constant contact with writers.

After five years, Russell asked me to take over the firm’s small but growing list of juvenile writers and grow it into something more substantial. I accepted the challenge, and have been searching for wonderful children’s books, from picture books to YA, ever since.

I am looking for anything that is beautifully written, with a strong, distinct voice and characters that come alive on the page. Ideally, a book should grab my attention from the very beginning and hold it there, and leave me thinking about it for a few days after I am finished.”