Before she published her first book, Sandell traveled to Israel for a
birthright trip and interned in
Jerusalem,
Israel, at the news magazine
The Jerusalem Report. The experience informed Sandell's first novel,
The Weight of the Sky, a novel in verse published by
Viking Children's Books in 2006. In 1999, Sandell received a BA in Medieval and Renaissance Literature from the
University of Pennsylvania. Her honors thesis on
Sir Thomas Malory's treatment of
Lancelot in
Le Morte d'Arthur provided the inspiration for her second novel,
Song of the Sparrow. Her last published work,
A Map of the Known World, was published in 2009. Sandell moved to New York City in 2000, and began work as a children's book editor at
Scholastic. She is the Editorial Director of Scholastic Focus, the narrative nonfiction imprint of Scholastic. Sandell is married to
Liel Leibovitz, conservative Israeli pundit and editor-at-large for
Tablet magazine. ==Young adult novels==