Matthew Swanson

Matthew Swanson (and his wife Robbi Behr) are author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed Cookie Chronicles series, The Real McCoys trilogy, and the picture books Sunrise Summer, Babies Ruin Everything, and Everywhere, Wonder. When not advocating for local schools, giving talks on creative entrepreneurship, or running a summer salmon fishing operation on the Alaskan tundra, we live in an old barn on the Eastern Shore of Maryland—making books and raising our four kids.

Matthew and Robbi will spend the 2022-2023 school year crisscrossing the United States in a school bus/tiny home with our four kids, visiting underserved elementary schools in all 50 states (plus DC), and giving away 25,000 free hardcover books to students and teachers f

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Deborah Hopkinson

I write nonfiction and historical fiction, picture books, and Golden Books. I speak at school, libraries, and conferences. I also love to garden and offer manuscript critiques. (Deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com)

NEW books in 2024 include DETERMINED DREAMER: THE STORY OF MARIE CURIE, illus by Jen Hill, ON A SUMMER NIGHT, illus by Kenard Pak, TRIM HELPS OUT and TRIM SAILS the STORM, illus by Kristy Caldwell, EVIDENCE! illustrated by Nik Henderson, and a nonfiction work called THEY SAVED THE STALLIONS. I'm delighted to say that Trim Helps Out, Trim Sails the Storm, On a Summer Night and Evidence! are all Junior Library Guild selections.

I live and work in Oregon and travel all over to speak to young readers and writers.

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Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.

Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.

She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.

She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often
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Janet Stevens

Janet Stevens began drawing as a child. Pictures decorated her walls, mirrors, furniture and school work -- including math assignments. While this didn't always sit well with her teachers, it was what she loved to do.

Janet’s father was in the Navy therefore she moved a great deal and attended many schools while growing up.

After graduating from high school in Hawaii in 1971 she landed a job creating Hawaiian designs for fabric. The printed fabric was then made into aloha shirts and muumuus. After she graduated from the University of Colorado in 1975 with a degree in Fine Arts Janet began compiling a portfolio of “characters”, bears in tutus, rhinos in sneakers, and walruses in Hawaiian shirts. In 1977, she attended “The Illustrator's Worksh
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Henry Cole

Henry Cole was a celebrated science teacher for many years before turning his talents to children's books. He has worked on nearly one hundred and fifty books for children, including Nesting, Unspoken, Big Bug, A Nest for Celeste, Jack's Garden, and On Meadowview Street. Henry loves being outside where he can sketch and write.
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Brett Helquist

Brett Helquist has illustrated many books for children, including the Series of Unfortunate Events books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Candace Fleming

I have always been a storyteller. Even before I could write my name, I could tell a good tale. And I told them all the time. As a preschooler, I told my neighbors all about my three-legged cat named Spot. In kindergarten, I told my classmates about the ghost that lived in my attic. And in first grade I told my teacher, Miss Harbart, all about my family's trip to Paris, France.

I told such a good story that people always thought I was telling the truth. But I wasn't. I didn't have a three-legged cat or a ghost in my attic, and I'd certainly never been to Paris, France. I simply enjoyed telling a good story... and seeing my listener's reaction.

Sure, some people might have said I was a seven-year old fibber. But not my parents. Instead of calli
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Andrew Clements

I was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was t
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Christopher E. Long

Christopher E. Long’s comic books have been published by the likes of Marvel Comics, DC Comics, IDW Publishing and Image Comics.

His articles and short stories have been published in a variety of magazines, including Flaunt, Spinetingler Magazine, and Thuglit.

His first published comic book was “Easy Way,” which he got the title tattooed on his arm. “Hero Worship” is his debut young adult novel, so he’s getting that tattooed on his arm soon.

Christopher was born in Seattle, Washington, raised in Logan, Utah, and currently lives in Southern California with his wife and son.

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Paul Fleischman

Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California. The son of well-known children's novelist Sid Fleischman, Paul was in the unique position of having his famous father's books read out loud to him by the author as they were being written. This experience continued throughout his childhood.
Paul followed in his father's footsteps as an author of books for young readers, and in 1982 he released the book "Graven Images", which was awarded a Newbery Honor citation.
In 1988, Paul Fleischman came out with "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices", an unusually unique collection of poetry from the perspective of insects. This book was awarded the 1989 John Newbery Medal. Factoring in Sid Fleischman's win of the John Newbery Medal in 1987 for his b
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Judy Schachner

Judith Byron "Judy" Schachner is an American children's writer and illustrator. Her works include the Skippyjon Jones series. Schachner lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Bob, and a dog and her two Siamese cats.
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Christopher Denise

Christopher Denise spent much of his childhood in Shannon, Ireland, exploring castles and dreaming of great adventures. He is the illustrator of many critically acclaimed books for young readers, including Anika Denise’s Bunny in the Middle, Alison McGhee’s Firefly Hollow, and Rosemary Wells’s Following Grandfather, as well as several in Brian Jacques’s award-winning Redwall series. His books have appeared on the Indie Next List and the New York Times bestseller list. Knight Owl (march 2022) marks his author-illustrator debut. Christopher’s current adventures include exploring coastal Rhode Island, where he lives with his family.
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Peter Bently

Peter Bently is married with two children, and lives in south England. He studied languages at Oxford University and has written over 40 titles, one of which led to him being awarded the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2011.
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Laurel Molk

Laurel Molk has written and illustrated several books for children, including Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and FLO! and When You Were Just a Heartbeat. She lives near Boston.
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Loren Long

I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky in the 1970’s. We had no artists of any kind in the family. We didn’t know any artists. I liked sports, especially baseball. My mother read to me a lot. But I have to admit, my favorite subject in school was gym class. I also liked to draw. My parents encouraged me to keep drawing.
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Sarah Mackenzie

Sarah Mackenzie is a homeschooling mother of six and the author Teaching from Rest and The Read-Aloud Family, as well as several picture books for kids.

She's the host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, which has been downloaded over 14 million times in more than 160 countries.

Her boutique, award-winning publishing house, Waxwing Books, makes timeless stories families will love to read aloud.

Sarah makes her home in the Northwest with Andrew, her husband of 23 years, and their 6 kids. You can usually find her reading stacks of picture books, mixing up a batch of sourdough, or loving on her doodles, Tomie dePawla and Gilbert Blythe.
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Jeff Mack

Born in Syracuse, New York, Jeff Mack has written and illustrated a long list of picture books, chapter books, and early readers, including Clueless McGee, Good News Bad News, Frog and Fly, the Hippo and Rabbit series, and Hush Little Polar Bear.

He has also illustrated many books for other authors, including James Howe's Bunnicula and Friends series and Eve Bunting's Hurry! Hurry!, one of School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2007.

At home in Easthampton, Massachusetts, he continues to write, illustrate, and visit schools and libraries to talk about his work. Visit him at www.jeffmack.com.

Bio taken from Jeff's website: http://www.jeffmack.com/short_biograp....
More biographical information can be found at http://www.jeffmack.com/biography.ht
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Brendan Wenzel

Brendan Wenzel is an author and illustrator based in upstate New York. His debut picture book, They All Saw a Cat, was a New York Times bestseller and the recipient of a 2017 Caldecott Honor. An ardent conservationist, he is a proud collaborator with many organizations working to ensure the future of wild places and threatened species.
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Corey R. Tabor

Corey R. Tabor grew up in Wyoming, where he once spent the night in a cave by an underground waterfall. He now lives with his wife in Seattle, where he draws and reads and explores. Please visit him at coreyrtabor.com.

from https://www.readbrightly.com/meet-ill...
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Julie Andrews

Some books on this profile are for a different author named Julie Andrews. Most are by
Julie Andrews Edwards

Noted British actress Dame Julie Andrews, originally Julia Elizabeth Wells sang and acted roles in musicals, such as My Fair Lady on Broadway in 1956, and films, such as The Sound of Music in 1965.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_A...
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Whitney Gardner

Whitney Gardner is an author, illustrator, and coffee addict. Originally from New York, she studied design and worked as an art teacher and school librarian before moving to Victoria, BC, where she lives by the Salish Sea with her husband and two pugs. In the rare moment Whitney isn’t writing or drawing, she’s likely to be reading comics, knitting, or roasting her own coffee beans.
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Sean Taylor

Sean Taylor started writing poetry as a teenager. In 1993, he came across a newspaper article which reported that a goat slaughtered in Iran had been found to have teeth made of gold. He tried writing a story for children. It was called 'The Goat with the Golden Teeth' and it won second prize in a competition run by the British newspaper 'The Independent' and Scholastic Children's Books. Since then, Sean has focussed on writing for children and has published over forty books for young readers of different ages. As well as writing, he has many years’ experience visiting schools, where he works with poetry and storytelling to encourage young people to write themselves. He lives partly in England (where he was born) and partly in Brazil( where
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Mike Jung

Mike Jung is the author of the middle-grade novels Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2012), Unidentified Suburban Object (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2016), and The Boys in the Back Row (Levine Querido, 2020). His essays can be found in the anthologies Dear Teen Me (Zest, 2012), Break These Rules (Chicago Review Press, 2013), 59 Reasons to Write (Stenhouse, 2015), (Don't) Call Me Crazy (Algonquin, 2018), and The Hero Next Door (Crown, 2019). He's a founding member of We Need Diverse Books.
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Luisana Duarte Armendáriz

Luisana Duarte Armendáriz is a children’s book author that hails from Ciudad Juárez, México, the most fabulous and beautiful border city in the world (Juan Gabriel’s words, not hers). She holds a dual master’s degree in Children’s Literature and Writing for Children from Simmons College.

Luisana has had a love affair with literature since she was a little girl. She loved going to the libraries in El Paso, TX, even though her library card read ‘Lupsana’ (her mom claims the typo was through no fault of her own). Her childhood, filled by Leo Lionni, Amelia Bedelia, and Hogwarts, inspired her to create books for children so that they may also fall in love with stories.
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Carolyn Coman

Carolyn Coman (born 1951 in Evanston near Chicago) is a writer of children's books living in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Her books What Jamie Saw (1995) and Many Stones (2000) were nominated for several awards.

She worked as a bookbinder from 1975-84 and later as an editor with Heinemann before she became a full-time writer. Her books include the portrait documentary of the debut, and a picture book before 4 novels for young adults from 1993 to 2000. Her two latest books (2004 and 2007), for middle grade readers, combine humor, investigation and a sense of nostalgia.

Her four young adult novels are described as “she explores the darker sides of growing up: dealing with parent's abandonment through death in Tell Me Everything, abuse by a ste
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Brett Helquist

Brett Helquist has illustrated many books for children, including the Series of Unfortunate Events books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Christopher E. Long

Christopher E. Long’s comic books have been published by the likes of Marvel Comics, DC Comics, IDW Publishing and Image Comics.

His articles and short stories have been published in a variety of magazines, including Flaunt, Spinetingler Magazine, and Thuglit.

His first published comic book was “Easy Way,” which he got the title tattooed on his arm. “Hero Worship” is his debut young adult novel, so he’s getting that tattooed on his arm soon.

Christopher was born in Seattle, Washington, raised in Logan, Utah, and currently lives in Southern California with his wife and son.

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Julie Andrews

Some books on this profile are for a different author named Julie Andrews. Most are by
Julie Andrews Edwards

Noted British actress Dame Julie Andrews, originally Julia Elizabeth Wells sang and acted roles in musicals, such as My Fair Lady on Broadway in 1956, and films, such as The Sound of Music in 1965.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_A...
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Eve L. Ewing

Dr. Eve Louise Ewing is a writer and a sociologist of education from Chicago. Ewing is a prolific writer across multiple genres. Her 2018 book Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism & School Closings on Chicago's South Side explores the relationship between the closing of public schools and the structural history of race and racism in Chicago's Bronzeville community.

Ewing's first collection of poetry, essays, and visual art, Electric Arches, was published by Haymarket Books in 2017. Her second collection, 1919, tells the story of the race riot that rocked Chicago in the summer of that year. Her first book for elementary readers, Maya and the Robot, is forthcoming in 2020 from Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Her work has been published
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Judy Schachner

Judith Byron "Judy" Schachner is an American children's writer and illustrator. Her works include the Skippyjon Jones series. Schachner lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Bob, and a dog and her two Siamese cats.
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Bonnie Tsui

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year; it has been translated into ten languages and was a Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist in Science. Bonnie is also the author of American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Sarah and the Big Wave, a children’s book about the first woman to surf Mavericks and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. She is a consultant for the Hulu television series Interior Chinatown. Her new book, On Muscle, will be published in April 2025. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National
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Maleeha Siddiqui

Maleeha Siddiqui is an American writer of Pakistani descent who loves to tell stories for all ages. Her books include Barakah Beats (Scholastic 2021), Bhai For Now (Scholastic 2022), and Any Way You Look (Scholastic 2024). By day, Maleeha works as a regulatory affairs professional in the biotech industry. She grew up and continues to reside with her family in Virginia.
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Scott Riley

Scott Riley is a international school teacher by day and children’s book author at night. Scott has spent nearly thirty years teaching in the US, Indonesia, Czech Republic, and Singapore. Inspired by his travels, Scott writes about remarkable people and places. His debut picturebook, THE FLOATING FIELD, is one of those stories.
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Tom O'Donnell

Tom O'Donnell has written for The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and several TV shows. Tom lives with his wife and kids in Brooklyn, NY.
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