Ivy
Claire Pochoda is an American novelist and former professional
squash-player. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and holds a BA from
Harvard College (1998) in Classical Greek & English and American
Literature. She also received an MFA in 2011 in fiction from Bennington
College. In her college career at Harvard University, Pochoda was the
1998 national squash champion and led Harvard to the
intercollegiate national team championships in all four of her years on
the team. She was also named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Player of
the Year, a four-time All-American and First Team all-Ivy. In May 2013,
she was inducted into the Harvard Hall of Fame.
Under the name of Ivy Claire, Pochoda collaborated with the late LA
Lakers professional basketball star Kobe Bryant to create a
middle-school book series, Epoca that marries sports and adventure.
This is the first in the series, Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof, and was a
number one New York Times Best Seller.
The Book: Set in an alternate classical world dominated by sports and a
magical power called Grana, Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof is the story of
two children: the lowly born Rovi and the crown princess Pretia who
uncover and battle terrible evil and discover their inner strength
along the way. Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof takes place at the most elite
sports academy in the land, where the best child-athletes are sent to
hone their skills. When Rovi and Pretia arrive, each harboring a secret
about themselves, they begin to suspect that something evil is at play
at the school. In the course of their first year, they must learn to
master their Grana in order to save the world from dark forces that are
rising.
