I was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Arlington, Virginia. I’ve lived in some other places—Massachusetts, Italy (I still have loads of family there) but for many years now I have lived in Maryland and in the mountains of West Virginia. (I’m always trying to get MORE time in West Virginia.)

As a kid I loved to read and also to go running all over the woods with  my friends. We used to build dams in the creeks and redirect entire sections of water flow. In school I excelled in anything creative, but in anything that required math or for me to remember to turn in homework, I didn’t do nearly as well. In fact, you can read on my website on the bio page the comments from my teachers from each year of elementary school. You'll see I was not very good at anything that required organization, and I also talked too much to other kids in class.

My father was a veterinarian, so we often had wounded birds and  squirrels delivered to our door by neighborhood kids. Sometimes we were able to nurse them back to health and set them free—that was a great feeling. My parents encouraged us to be honest, and also to question authority and think for ourselves. My Italian grandparents also had a hand in raising us and I learned a lot from them about loving life.

I decided to write for young readers because I felt I had something to say to them. Each of my books has a message—for example, Storm Warriors is saying "Follow your dreams—and be ready to recognize your dreams if they show up looking a little different than you expected them to."  Starting School With an Enemy is saying "Sometimes it takes more courage NOT to fight than to fight." Basically, I write because I want to make the world a better place. I hope that these messages will put readers in touch with something brighter, stronger, more wonderful inside of themselves. The most satisfying thing is when I hear from a reader—a child or an adult—that one of my books has touched them, or even changed them.

Starting School with an Enemy
Cloonfad Press, 2005
ages 12 and up, ISBN 978-0-679-88639-6

Worried about finding friends when she moves from Maine to Maryland, ten-year-old Sarah gets off to a bad start by making an enemy of a boy.

Last Dance on Holladay Street
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2005
ISBN 978-0-375-82896-6

The year is 1878, and 13-year-old Eva has lost all the family she's ever known. Eva feels like an orphan—but she's not. Sadie Lewis, the woman who gave her up at birth, is alive and well in Denver. And Eva sets out to find her, carrying only an address on a slip of paper.

But Denver holds more surprises than Eva can bear. When she reaches 518 Holladay Street, she discovers Sadie Lewis's shocking secret—a secret that lands Eva in a house of ill repute, forced to dance with strangers for her keep. But Eva knows in her bones that she's free—and that she's got to escape. In a novel that pulses with the sights, sounds, and wild dangers of the frontier West, Elisa Carbone explores the many faces that family, and freedom, can take.

The Pack
Viking Juvenile, 2003
ISBN 978-0-670-03619-6

Akhil Vyas, a new boy in school, reluctantly decides that in order to prevent a violent crime, he must tell Omar and Becky his secret.

Sarah and the Naked Truth
Yearling, 2002
young adult, ISBN 978-0-375-80264-5

While ten-year-old Sarah faces some challenges after losing most of her hair in a bubble gum accident, her closest friends Christina and Olivia deal with identity issues of their own, and in the end all learn to stand up to others in order to be true to themselves.

Stealing Freedom
Yearling, 2001
young adult, ISBN 978-0-440-41707-1

A novel based on the events in the life of a young slave girl from Maryland who endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being separated from her family, but who eventually escapes to freedom in Canada.

Storm Warriors
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001
young adult, ISBN 978-0-375-80664-3

In 1895, after his mother's death, twelve-year-old Nathan moves with his father and grandfather to Pea Island off the coast of North Carolina, where he hopes to join the all-black crew at the nearby lifesaving station, despite his father's objections.

My Dad's Definitely Not a Drunk
Waterfront Books, 1992
ages 12 and up, ISBN 978-0-914525-22-6

Twelve-year-old Corey O'Dell is struggling with a family secret:her dad drinks too much and has trouble holding a job. Corey wishes she lived in a "normal" family. Still, she loves her father and tries to help him in the best way she knows how. When Mr. O'Dell's alcohol abuse takes a turn for the worse, Corey and her mother discover a way of help that they never would have dreamed of.