Tara Lazar
Street magic performer. Award-winning ice sculptor. Hog-calling champion. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been. Instead, she writes stories for children featuring quirky characters and hilarious happenings. Tara writes the 7 ATE 9 series of picture books from Little Brown, illustrated by Ross MacDonald. Her next book is BLOOP, about an alien who comes to conquer earth but thinks the dogs are in charge! Tara lives in New Jersey with her husband, two daughters, and an adopted stray cat named Phoebe who thinks she is in charge of the planet. Visit Tara online to read about all her books at taralazar.com.
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Jason Carter Eaton
Jason Carter Eaton was born in several small towns throughout the United States and one in Ireland. He is the author of numerous children's books, including How to Train a Train, How to Track a Truck, Great, Now We've Got Barbarians!, The Facttracker, The Catawampus Cat, and The Day My Runny Nose Ran Away, which most children thought was a funny story, though it was actually a tragic autobiography. Jason currently lives in Tarrytown, New York with his wife, two kids, giant dog, and pet freight train.
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Michael Hall
Michael Hall is the author/illustrator of The New York Times bestseller, My Heart Is Like a Zoo, as well as the critically acclaimed Perfect Square, It’s an Orange Aardvark, Red: A Crayon’s Story, and Frankencrayon.
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Before becoming a children’s author, Michael was an award-winning graphic designer whose work — including graphic identities for the City of Saint Paul, Macalester College, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Hennepin County Medical Center — has been widely recognized for its simple and engaging approach.
Michael lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Cece Bell
I'm an author and an illustrator, and sadly not a jazz pianist. I live in an old church in the hills of Virginia with my husband, author Tom Angleberger. I work right next door in a new-ish barn. I've written and illustrated a bunch of books for kids and was lucky enough to get a Geisel Honor for one of 'em. If you want to know more about my hearing loss or my childhood (or both), check out my first graphic novel, El Deafo. It's only slightly fictionalized, honest! I'm at www.cecebell.com if you want to see more weird stuff.
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Kritika H. Rao
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Kritika H. Rao is a science-fiction and fantasy writer, who has lived in India, Australia, Canada and The Sultanate of Oman. Kritika’s stories are influenced by her lived experiences, and often explore themes of consciousness, self vs. the world, and identity. She drops in and out of social media; you might catch her on Twitter or Instagram @KritikaHRao. Visit her online at www.kritikahrao.com. -
Dev Petty
Dev writes books for kids which are also often enjoyed by immature adults.
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She was a senior visual effects artist in film and is now- thanks to her husband, daughters and pets, fully recovered from her chronic workaholism.
She is also good at word jumbles. Really good.
Dev was born in Berkeley, California and now lives pretty much in Berkeley, California. -
Julia Sarcone-Roach
Julia Sarcone-Roach's animated short Call of the Wild has shown at numerous film festivals around the world. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design. This is her first book. Julia Sarcone-Roach lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Angela DiTerlizzi
Angela DiTerlizzi is a mom, wife, and author who loves writing books for children. Her picture books include Some Pets, Some Bugs, Baby Love, and Just Add Glitter. She and her husband, bestselling author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, reside with their daughter in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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Jonathan Graziano
Jonathan Graziano is a Richester, NY, native who currently resides in New York City with his geriatric pug and muse, Noodle. Together they enjoy people watching, snacking, and spending time together on the couch. It is Jonathan's hope (he has learned not to speak for Noodle) that people find joy in this story and seek to rescue or adopt a dog the next time they want to bring one into their family.
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S.D. Schindler
S. D. Schindler has illustrated dozens of books for children, including the Catwings series by Ursula K. Le Guin, Hornbooks and Inkwells by Verla Kay, Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman, Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant, and Brother Hugo and the Bear by Katy Beebe. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Randi Sonenshine
Randi Sonenshine is a middle-school literacy coach and writer. The Nest That Wren Built is her first picture book. She lives in northwest Georgia with her family.
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Lori Mortensen
Lori Mortensen is an award-winning children's author of more than 100 books. Her books, which reviewers have praised as “stellar” “as good as it gets” and “begs to be read aloud,” have been published by such notable publishers as HarperCollins, Henry Holt, Abrams, Bloomsbury, and Peachtree. Popular releases include, Arlo Draws an Octopus, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Rob Sayegh, Jr., If Wendell Had a Walrus, illustrated by NYT bestselling author/illustrator Matt Phelan, Cowpoke Clyde Rides the Range, a Bill Martin Jr., Picture Book Award Nominee and the sequel to Amazon bestseller Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, and picture book biographies Nonsense! The Curious Story of Edward Gorey and Away with Words, the Daring True S
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Michelle Robinson
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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When I'm not up to my knees in nappies, I write children's books. I also spend a fair amount of time eating chocolate. I try to write funny, read-aloud books that parents will enjoy as much as children - after all, if you have to share the same stories umpteen times, you may as well enjoy them.
I hope you like my books enough to read them umpteen times. Thank you - Michelle. -
Ariel Bernstein
Ariel Bernstein is a picture book, chapter book, and short story writer. Sometimes she also writes out grocery lists as long as they include the word marshmallows. She lives in New Jersey with her family.
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Kiera Wright-Ruiz
Kiera Wright-Ruiz is a writer and recipe developer. She has written for publications like The New York Times, Food52, Serious Eats and The Kitchn. Her work explores the diversity of food and amplifies underrepresented communities. Her first book, I Want To Be Spaghetti!, explores how a little ramen packet finds self-love and belonging in a spaghetti-obsessed world. It will be available on July 2023 from Kokila. And her debut recipe book, The Half-Latinx Cookbook, publishes in 2025 from Harvest. When not writing, she is probably eating onigiri with her husband and dog somewhere in Tokyo, where she is based.
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Find more about her work @kierawrr and kierawrightruiz.com. -
Sam Lloyd
Sam Lloyd studied at Brighton University where she gained a BA Hons in Illustration. Now Sam is the author and illustrator of many successful picture books for children. Her picture books include Happy Day, Sad Dog which won the Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award in 2003, Mr Pusskins which won the Booktrust Pre-School Award in 2006 and the V & A Illustration Award. Most recently Calm Down Boris published by Templar in 2006 has been chosen by Richard and Judy for their Christmas Picks.
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As well as writing and illustrating books, Sam also enjoys yoga, swimming, camping and doing outdoorsy things. She has been all over the world, including travels to India and Australia. Sam also does a lot of voluntary work with children, painting murals. -
Bruce Hale
A serious book addict, Bruce wanted to be a children's book author since he was in 4th grade (right after he got over wanting to be a pirate, Tarzan, and Daniel Boone). Today he's the author-illustrator of over 70 seriously funny books for kids, so some dreams do come true.
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The Malted Falcon, one of his Chet Gecko Mysteries series, was an Edgar Award finalist, and Murder, My Tweet won a Little D Award for Juvenile Humor Writing. Bruce has written everything from picture books and easy readers, to graphic novels and novels.
Bruce's recent Monstertown Mysteries series blends horror and humor, based on his childhood love of monster movies. His other series include Class Pets, about the secret lives of classroom pets, and the forthcoming Outerspa -
Mike Twohy
MIKE TWOHY
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Cartoonist Mike Twohy has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine for over three decades. He has also drawn cartoons for a wide variety of other publications (from Ranger Rick to The National Law Journal) and created a syndicated panel, That’s Life, which found humor in everyday situations. The most recent of several books he has illustrated is titled Teaching Opera, the Role of the Opera Workshop, a project close to his heart since his wife, Linda, is a violinist in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and he became an opera fan years ago.
A compulsive doodler from an early age, Mike’s career actually began when, as a kid growing up in Northern California, he wrote and illustrated a neighborhood newspaper complete with -
Alfredo Soderguit
Alfredo Soderguit began drawing cars when he was three. By the time he was four, he had fooled his teacher into thinking he could read because he could narrate a book by looking at the pictures. He is now an award-winning author and illustrator with more than forty books published throughout Latin America, Spain, France, and Italy.
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He also makes animated films with Palermo Studio, a collective, which he founded with other illustrators and animators. His work has been selected for the Bratislava Biennale, the Bologna Book Fair Illustrator’s Exhibition, and the Children’s Literature Illustration Award of Uruguay.
His 2020 children's book, Los carpinchos/The Capybaras, appeared in the New York Public Library Best Books of 2020 and the White Rave -
Isabella Kung
Isabella Kung is an Illustrator/Author, Instructor and Professional Cat Cuddler in San Francisco. Growing up in Hong Kong, she would create her own narrative and draw over all her textbooks – anything to make the dull concrete world more colorful! She is delighted she still does both every day! She has won the Silver Medal in the Illustration West 56th Competition, a finalist in Spectrum 25, featured on the cover of SCBWI Bulletin and won Portfolio Best in Show at the SCBWI 2016 Golden Gate Conference. Isabella has illustrated for Candlewick Press, Committee for Children, P&H Publishing, 826 Valencia, Ladybug Magazine, and her debut picture book, No Fuzzball!, comes out in Summer 2020 by Orchard Books, Scholastic. She represented by Jennife
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Edwina Wyatt
Edwina Wyatt worked as a lawyer and as a high-school teacher before becoming a writer of children’s books. Her books have earned numerous awards, including two Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Books. Sometimes Cake is her first book with Candlewick Press. She lives with her family in Victoria, Australia.
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Georgie Birkett
I live and work in the beautiful hilly town of Lewes, near Brighton with my husband, two sons and two cats. I have made lots of children’s books, working with many publishers including PenguinRandomHouse, Macmillan and Bloomsbury. Making children's books is the best job ever and so fun, I knew this would be my job even when I was in primary school!
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Jo Hirst
Jo Hirst is a former Primary School teacher who wrote Australia’s first picture book for transgender children, The Gender Fairy.
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Growing up in a family that didn’t believe in gender stereotyping, Jo’s mother was a builder who liked working with her hands. Her father was an English teacher with a talent for story telling.
Jo is passionate about writing books that challenge some of the stereotypes in our society and allow all children to see themselves represented in literature.
She lives by the seaside in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner and two sons, one of whom is transgender. -
Jill Esbaum
Jill Esbaum is a full-time writer and author of I am Cow, Hear Me Moo!, I Hatched!, Stanza, and Tom’s Tweet, among many others. She lives on a farm with her husband and children in Dixon, IA.
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Jacqueline B. Toner
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Jacqueline Toner is the author of eight best-selling non-fiction books with psychological themes for children from preschool through adolescence. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and won praise from library associations, and awards including a Mom's Choice Award and a nomination for a Children's Choice Award.
A psychologist who practiced for over thirty years, Dr. Toner, volunteers with a youth leadership group in her hometown of Baltimore and enjoys time with her family, including her three grandchildren. -
Liz Goulet Dubois
I write and illustrate books for children, and nothing makes me happier! I enjoy finding the sweet spot between funny and heartfelt, and creating characters that feel like real people, even if they are toads or ducks.
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Visit me at:
LizGouletDubois.com -
Patricia Tanumihardja
Born in Jakarta to Indonesian-Chinese parents, Patricia grew up in Singapore feasting on her mother’s yummy home-cooking and reading voraciously. She has been reading and writing since she was wee high and was nourished on everything from Enid Blyton to Archie comics. Fairies, magic treehouses and high school angst–what a combo right? As an immigrant twice-over, she is brimming with stories to tell and hope that children of every creed and color—including her multiracial son—will see themselves reflected in books, whether hers or other #ownvoices authors.
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Patricia lives in the Washington D.C. metro region with her husband and son where she writes children’s stories with heart and works on her other passion—food and cooking. -
Shawna J.C. Tenney
Shawna has had a love for art and drawing ever since her early childhood. Even at an early age she would draw her own stories for hours. She was highly influenced by her mom reading to her and taking her to the library. At the library, she always would go to the fairy tale section and find her favorite fairy tales, then try to copy the illustrations in the books.
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Shawna went into art in college, and in 2004 graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration from Brigham Young University. A year later in 2005, she began her career as a freelance illustrator and has been illustrating and loving it ever since.
Since then, Shawna has created artwork for many children's books along with children's magazines, educational and religious -
Karla Clark
Karla Clark wanted to be an author when she was a child...then she wanted to be an artist. She feels very blessed to be both. Her passion for writing comes from her father who was a consummate storyteller. She is the author of six books—three novels, a book of short stories, and two children’s picture books. She has made over 100 visits to local women’s book clubs from 2003-2018, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustartors, Rockford Arts Council, and Chicago Writer’s Association.
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Karla lives in Rockford, Illinois, with her husband and adult autistic son. She has a degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University. When she's not writing, she's creating decoupage paper collages that she sells at an annual art s -
Gillian Sze
GILLIAN SZE is the author of Panicle (ECW Press, 2017), Peeling Rambutan (Gaspereau Press, 2014) and Redrafting Winter (BuschekBooks, 2015), which were shortlisted for the QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. She is also the author of The Anatomy of Clay (ECW Press, 2011) and Fish Bones (DC Books, 2009). More recently, she has started writing for children. Her first two picture books are The Night Is Deep and Wide (Orca, 2021) and My Love for You Is Always (Philomel, 2021). Gillian's work has appeared in a number of national and international journals, and has received awards such as the University of Winnipeg Writers’ Circle Prize and the 3Macs carte blanche Prize. She studied Creative Writing and English Literatur
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Tony Hillery
Tony Hillery is the founder and executive director of Harlem Grown. In 2011 he began volunteering at a public elementary school in Harlem. It was then that he noticed the vacant lot across from the street and had a big idea. The rest is history. Tony lives in New York, New York. Harlem Grown is his picture book debut.
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Jessica Meserve
Jessica Meserve is the illustrator of all the Daisy Dawson books. She is also an author and illustrator of several picture books.
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"I received my BA and Ma in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art. After leaving college, I worked for four years in publishing as a Children’s book designer. One spring day in 2001 I woke up ready for change. I finally took the plunge and quit my job to pursue my true passion of children’s illustration. Small was the first book I both wrote and illustrated.”
Since then she has published several books, moved between the UK, Canada and the US and has now settled in the UK with her family. She recently studied for an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art where she rediscovered her love of -
Kathleen Doherty
Kathleen enjoys bringing kids and quality literature together. She's a Reading Specialist and an Educational Specialist in Curriculum and Instruction. Her love of learning has led her to graduate from four different universities.
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Nothing scares her. Kathleen has taught elementary school for over 30 years. A student once told her she'd make a great vampire because she's tall and her teeth are sharp!
Her work has appeared in TIME Magazine, The Mailbox, Spider Magazine, Highlights Hello, Highlights High Five, and Highlights for Children. She's won the Highlights Pewter Plate Award, the Highlights Celebrate National Poetry Contest, and a letter of merit from SCBWI's Magazine Merit Competition.
Her 1st picture book, DON'T FEED THE BEAR, is featur -
Kristyna Litten
Kristyna Litten has written and illustrated several books for children, as well as creating artwork for book covers and magazines. This is her first book with Candlewick Press. She lives in Yorkshire, England.
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Lester L. Laminack
Lester L. Laminack is Professor Emeritus from department of Birth-Kindergarten, Elementary and Middle Grades Education, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina where he received two awards for excellence in teaching [the Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award]. Lester is now a full-time writer and consultant working with schools throughout the United States. He is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English and served three years as co-editor of the NCTE journal Primary Voices and as editor of the Children’s Book Review Department of the NCTE journal Language Arts (2003-2006). He also served as a teaching editor for the magazine Teaching K-8 and wrote the Pare
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Sarah Nelson
Sarah Nelson is the author of critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction picture books. Her most recent title, Birth of the Bicycle: A Bumpy History of the Bicycle in America, is a 2024 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Sarah's other titles include Firefly Galaxy, Follow the Flyway: the Marvel of Bird Migration, and A Park Connects Us, which has been featured in dozens of StoryWalks across the United States. When not writing, Sarah teaches English to adult immigrants and refugees and loves walking in the parks around her Minnesota home. She is represented by Marietta B. Zacker of the Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency. Learn more at sarahnelsonbooks.com.
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Ivan Bates
Ivan Bates studied illustration at Manchester Polytechnic and has illustrated many books for children, including Just You and Me by Sam McBratney, Do Like A Duck Does! by Judy Hindley, and Five Little Ducks. He lives in England.
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Mariam Gates
Mariam Gates is a passionate and inspiring teacher with over 20 years of experience working with young people. Through the Kid Power Yoga Program she has combined her dedication to teaching yoga with her skills as an educator to guide children in accessing their own inner source of strength, confidence, problem-solving and creativity. Mariam received her Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1997. She taught in the Boston Public Schools and directed the Citizen Schools program in Dorchester, MA, a nationally recognized enrichment program for 9-13 year-olds.
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Mariam Gates is a passionate and inspiring teacher with over 20 years of experience working with young people. Through the Kid Power Yoga Program she has combi -
Lizzy Rockwell
Lizzy Rockwell is an illustrator whose artwork can be seen in picture books, magazines, games and on walls. She studied art and art history at Connecticut College, and drawing and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
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Lizzy is the illustrator of over 25 children's books by a variety of authors including her mother, Anne Rockwell. She is the author/illustrator of eleven books including The All-Together Quilt, Plants Feed Me, How Do You Feel?, Good Enough to Eat: A Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition, and The Busy Body Book: A Kid's Guide to Fitness.
Lizzy has two grown sons, and lives and works in Bridgeport, CT with her husband, Ken Alcorn, a high school social studies teacher. Lizzy likes to quilt, cook, hike, paddle, and -
Em Lynas
Em Lynas is a children’s author with a love of silly poetry, magic, dragons, and folklore. She has also worked as a shelf stacker, a shoe salesperson, a schoolteacher, a mother, and an educational publisher. She lives by the seaside on the northeast coast of England with her husband, Geoff.
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Aaron Chan
Aaron Chan is a musician, filmmaker, and writer born and raised on unceded Coast Salish territories (Vancouver, BC). He holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside. He is the author of This City Is a Minefield (Signal 8 Press), a collection of memoir and personal essays about growing up gay and Asian in Vancouver, and the children’s picture book, The Broken Heart, published by Rocky Pond Books His writing has been published in literary magazines and publications including Plenitude, filling Station, Polychrome Ink, and Xtra. His piece “A Case of Jeff” won subTerrain‘s Lush Triumphant Literary Award in Creative Non-Fiction, and he has published a poetry chapbo
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Leigh Anne Carter
Leigh Anne is a writer and illustrator of stories for young readers. If she's not at her desk working, you can find her lost in a book or the forest. She lives and works in North Carolina.
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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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Adam Wallace
Adam Wallace is a New York Times, USA Today and Amazon Bestselling author of the How to Catch series!
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Adam's passion is to bring excitement and energy and humour and joy to children (of all ages!) through his books and videos.
He spends his non-writing time thinking about writing and going to as many live music shows as he can. He's also teaching himself piano, and plays golf too. -
Jory John
Jory John is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor recipient.
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Jory's work includes the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Good Egg, and the #2 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Bad Seed, both illustrated by Pete Oswald. He is also the author of the popular picture books, Penguin Problems and Giraffe Problems, both illustrated by Lane Smith, the award-winning Goodnight Already! series, illustrated by Benji Davies, the New York Times bestselling Terrible Two series, the recent picture books Quit Calling Me a Monster! (with Bob Shea), Can Somebody Please Scratch My Back? (with Liz Climo), and the international bestseller, All my friends are dead, among many other books for both -
Cori Doerrfeld
Cori Doerrfeld lives in Minneapolis, MN with her husband and two children. She received her undergrad degree in Studio Art from St. Olaf College and her Post Baccalaureate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has several published titles including many self authored/self illustrated books.
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Tom Angleberger
Tom Angleberger artist-turned-writer. He is a columnist for the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia, and began work on his first book while in middle school. Tom is married to author-illustrator Cece Bell. He lives in Christianburg, Virginia.
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Stacy McAnulty
Stacy McAnulty is a children’s book author, who used to be a mechanical engineer, who’s also qualified to be a paleontologist (NOT REALLY), a correspondent for The Daily Show (why not), and a Green Bay Packer coach (totally!). She is the 2017 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Recipient for Excellent Ed, illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach. Her other picture books include Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, illustrated by David Litchfield; Brave and Beautiful, both illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff; Mr. Fuzzbuster Knows He’s the Favorite, illustrated by Edward Hemingway; and 101 Reasons Why I’m Not Taking a Bath, illustrated by Joy Ang. She’s also authored the chapter book series Goldie Blox, based on the award-winning toys, and The Dino Fil
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Kyle Lukoff
Kyle Lukoff writes books for kids and other people.
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Before becoming a full-time writer, Kyle worked at five bookstores, in four libraries, for three schools, as two genders, through one intersection: people, and books. -
Greg Pizzoli
Greg Pizzoli is the author and illustrator of The Watermelon Seed, winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, Number One Sam, Templeton Gets His Wish, Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower, and coming in April 2016, Good Night Owl. He lives in Philadelphia.
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Monica Arnaldo
Monica Arnaldo grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, where she was sometimes allowed inside her older brother's forts. Drawn to illustration by her passion for children's books, she combines a variety of media to create images full of character. She and her husband live in Montreal, Quebec, with their daughter, Beatrice.
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Dev Petty
Dev writes books for kids which are also often enjoyed by immature adults.
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She was a senior visual effects artist in film and is now- thanks to her husband, daughters and pets, fully recovered from her chronic workaholism.
She is also good at word jumbles. Really good.
Dev was born in Berkeley, California and now lives pretty much in Berkeley, California. -
Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor. He is the host of the new action podcast, Be Antiracist.
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Dr. Kendi is the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest ever winner of that award. He had also produced five straight #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. In 2020, T -
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.
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from https://www.readbrightly.com/meet-ill... -
Vashti Harrison
Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, is an artist, author, and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film and video from California Institute of the Arts, where she snuck into animation and illustration classes to learn from Disney and DreamWorks legends. There she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Now she uses her love for both film and illustration to craft beautiful stories for children.
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Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman was the first Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. She is also an activist. Gorman's work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. In January 2021, she became the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, reading her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden.
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Bess Kalb
Bess Kalb is an Emmy Award-nominated writer for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! television show and journalist with The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of the best-selling book, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story, which recounts the life of her grandmother, Bobby Bell.
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Devin Elle Kurtz
Devin Elle Kurtz lives in San Diego, California, with her dog, Kira, and her thirty-three houseplants. She’s been painting in Photoshop since the age of two when her artist mom first offered her a tablet pen. She was the lead background painter on the TV show “Disenchantment” at Rough Draft Studios from 2019-2021. The Bakery Dragon is her first picture book as an author-illustrator.
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Lauren Emmons
Lauren Emmons (they/them) is an illustrator and author of children’s books. They grew up in Minnesota exploring forests and learning important skills like turning the top of an acorn into a loud whistle. While they now live in North Dakota, they have lived all over the place - from California to Wisconsin to England.
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They have a Masters Degree in Children’s Book Illustration from the prestigious Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England; and was an award winner in the World Illustration Awards. The first book they illustrated, Prak Fills The House, was published by Peachtree Publishing in 2023; and their debut author illustrated book, No Cats In The Library, was published by Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster in 2024.
They create thei -
X. Fang
Hello! I’m X. Fang. I am a visual artist and maker of books for young readers. I was born in Taiwan, raised in Atlanta, Georgia, bounced around Brooklyn and Philly before settling down in Midcoast Maine with my husband, son, and dog.
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Jess Hannigan
Jess Hannigan is an illustrator and author living in Hamilton, Ontario. Her debut picture book was Spider in the Well, followed by her second, The Bear Out There. She has also illustrated for the New York Times, Readers Digest Canada, the Washington Post, and more.
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Beth Anderson
Beth Anderson, a former teacher, loves digging into history and culture for undiscovered gems, exploring points of view, and playing with words. She is drawn to stories that open minds, touch hearts, and inspire questions. Born and raised in Illinois, she now lives in Loveland, Colorado.
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Carmen Agra Deedy
Carmen Agra Deedy is an internationally known author of children’s literature, a storyteller and radio contributor. Born in Havana, Cuba, she immigrated to the United States with her family in 1963 after the Cuban Revolution. Deedy grew up in Decatur, Georgia and currently lives in Atlanta and has three daughters.
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Bess Kalb
Bess Kalb is an Emmy Award-nominated writer for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! television show and journalist with The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of the best-selling book, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story, which recounts the life of her grandmother, Bobby Bell.
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Cathleen Daly
Cathleen Daly is performer and writer who lives in the Bay Area outside San Francisco. Besides writing many little unintelligible notes to herself, she writes poetry, fiction and experimental theater. She has danced onstage with a cupcake attached to the top of her head with a single bobby-pin. Sometimes it fell off.
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Her poetry has been published in a variety of journals and in Literary Mama, The Anthology. She's authored one chapbook of poetry, "Ode to the Unhinged". Her last show "How to be a Secret Agent Girl as Seen on American Television and in Movies" won Best of the SF Fringe Festival and was featured in the Women on the Way Festival. Her favorite part of the show, besides dancing with a cupcake on her head, was dressing up as a dirty -
Galia Bernstein
Galia Bernstein loves animals and has been studying and drawing them since she was two years old. She is the bestselling author of three picture books, which have been published in fifteen languages, and the illustrator of many more. Galia lives in Brooklyn, New York, with a very small dog and a large cat.
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I am a Cat (2018)
Leyla (2019)
The Pumpernickel - Daffodil (2023)
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Anne Twist
Anne Twist is a debut children's author. She is the mother of Gemma and Harry. When her children were little, she read aloud to them constantly, especially at bedtime. After the death of her husband in 2017, Twist turned to writing poetry as a way of navigating her feelings of grief and loss. Her garden in the countryside of Cheshire, England, brought her peace as her craft grew and was the place where this story first bloomed. She hopes her debut book, Betty and the Mysterious Visitor becomes a bedtime favorite.
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Ashley Barron
Ashley Barron loves books, sunglasses, the ocean, and all things Washington, D.C. She is a self-published author, blogger, and entrepreneur who is forever fascinated by the power of small business.
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Ashley is active on Twitter as @dcPriya. -
Lisa Desimini
An American children's author and illustrator, Lisa Desimini was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1965, and educated at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City. Desimini has illustrated thirty-five books for children, nine of which she also authored. She is married to fellow artist Matt Mahurin, with whom she collaborated on My Beautiful Child. (sources: the author's website, and encyclopedia.com)
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Cynthia Leonor Garza
Cynthia Leonor Garza spent most of her childhood under the hot South Texas sun running around with her three brothers. She's a journalist who has worked for several newspapers and her commentaries have appeared on NPR and in The Atlantic. She currently lives with her two young daughters and husband in Nairobi, Kenya. Lucía the Luchadora is her first picture book.
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Calvin Alexander Ramsey
Calvin Alexander Ramsey is a playwright, photographer, and painter. He adapted one of his plays for print as Ruth and the Green Book, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Pat Tanumihardja
Born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, Patricia Tanumihardja writes about food, travel, and lifestyle through a multicultural lens and has been published in numerous national and regional publications. She has lived on three continents, speaks four languages and her myriad travels and cultural experiences inform her writing every step of the way. Pat especially enjoys covering topics that converge on food, history and culture, and as a former farmers’ market manager, she has a soft spot for small-scale family farmers and the sustainable produce they grow. Her stories are wide-ranging—from the story behind Grandma Pearlie’s sweet and sour pork to a kabocha how-to. Pat has been published in edibleSeattle, Monterey County Weekly, Sunset, S
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Katie Slivensky
Katie Slivensky is the critically acclaimed author of middle grade sci-fi adventures, The Countdown Conspiracy and The Seismic Seven (HarperCollins Childrens), as well as an upcoming picture book based on natural history, THIS WOLF WAS DIFFERENT with illustrator Hannah Salyer (Beach Lane Books, 2024), and a middle grade non-fiction book that focuses on physics, SMALLER: The Search for Subatomic Particles (Algonquin Young Readers, 2024). She is a professional science educator and enthusiast who has worked in zoos and museums since age 11. Her love of learning has resulted in a lifetime of adventures, including helping separate fighting rhinos, falling down a cliff in search of fossils, flying an astronaut through the solar system (the astron
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Kirsten Hubbard
In search of transcendent backdrops for her novels, Kirsten Hubbard has hiked ancient ruins in Cambodia, dived with wild dolphins in Belize (one totally looked her in the eye), slept in a Slovenian jail cell, and navigated numerous desert apocalypses (her cult is satirical, she swears). But she always comes home to California.
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Kirsten is the author of the young adult novels LIKE MANDARIN and WANDERLOVE (Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books); the middle-grade novels WATCH THE SKY and RACE THE NIGHT (Disney-Hyperion); and co-author of the SECRETS OF TOPSEA series as Kir Fox. She is also author of the picture book DEAR STRAY (Nancy Paulsen/Penguin). -
Sam Wedelich
Sam is a native Texan turned New Yorker. While she’s always been cartooning and writing and drawing, her main gig for many years was in the visual display world of retail.
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She worked extensively for Anthropologie and Free People for just over 5 years, before taking the leap to both pursue illustration full-time and be a stay-at-home parent to her 2 children.
Sam lives in the Bronx with her husband, kids and too many houseplants (is there such a thing?!).
Sam loves to read, bake, sing and is generally never found sitting still. You can follow along with her antics on Instagram @samwedelich or at her website: samwedelich.com -
Sean Callahan
My most recent book is "A Wild Father's Day." I've also written "Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun," "A is for Ara," and "The Bear Hug." For my day job, I'm a reporter at Crain Communications. I also edit the masters-athlete.com and masters-cycling.com Web sites."
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Julie Abery
Julie Abery is a children's author and former Pre-K teacher. Originally from England, she has spent half of her life living in Europe, bringing up her three (now grown up) children and experiencing new languages and cultures. She now calls Switzerland home.
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Ryan Uytdewilligen
Born in Lethbridge, Alberta and raised on the family farm outside the town of Coaldale, Uytdewilligen studied Communication Arts with a major in Broadcast Journalism at Lethbridge College – leading to work as a radio news anchor, television reporter, and copywriter.
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He later studied Writing for Film and Television at Vancouver Film School where he wrote and produced the short films Tea Time and Even the Devil Swiped Right.
His first novel, Tractor, was published in 2016 by Sartoris Literary. Taking inspiration from Jack Kerouac and Larry McMurtry novels, the story follows a teenager in the early 1960s drive a tractor across the American south.
Uytdewilligen’s second novel, Akela, was published in 2019 by BHC Press – earning numerous accolades -
Kevin Tseng
Kevin Tseng (which rhymes with “sun”) is the author of ONE SNOWY MORNING and the author-illustrator of NED’S NEW HOME, both picture books. He grew up in Thousand Oaks, California and earned degrees in biology and illustration at Washington University in St. Louis. He currently lives in Whitefish, Montana, where he continues to write and paint. See what’s new at www.kevintseng.com and on Instagram @drawkevindraw.
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Jade Orlando
I’m Jade, an illustrator living in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2018, I left my job of seven years as a staff children’s apparel artist to freelance full-time. My work can be found in books, apparel, advertising and licensing, with clients from Hallmark to the ACLU. I live in the ‘burbs with my husband, three cats, and a Greyhound named Petra. When I’m not illustrating, you can usually find me curled up with my pets and a really good book.
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