Book Authors and Illustrators
Stacy Schilling
Stacy Schilling is an artist, designer, illustrator and creative visionary that has brought The Frizz Girls to life after she noticed there was a gap in the market for wavy or curly hair education aimed at children. She created The Frizz Girls to empower and educate young readers to embrace and care for their natural curls. Stacy is a truly remarkable individual, serving as an inspiration to those around her with her positive impact on the world through her work and kindness. She continues to inspire and make a difference in the lives of many. Stacy graduated from the University...Read more about Stacy Schilling
Douglas Florian
Artist and poet Douglas Florian was born and raised in New York City, and educated at Queens College and the School of Visual Arts. Florian was a cartoonist for the New Yorker before a chance encounter with William Cole’s anthology of children’s verse, Oh, That’s Ridiculous (1977), inspired him to try his hand at the art. Florian’s illustrated poetry books for children often incorporate elements of collage, watercolor, and gouache on a surface of primed paper bags. He frequently takes the natural world as his subject, using wordplay, neologisms, rhyme, and humor to engage young readers. In a BookPage interview...Read more about Douglas Florian
Richard Michelson
Richard Michelson is a poet, children’s book author, and art dealer who does not generally speak of himself in the third person, so… I was born on July 3rd, 1953 in East New York, Brooklyn, where my dad had a small hardware store. We were 100% secular, though the area was 90% Jewish. Within 12 years it would be 90% African-American, and spark my lifelong exploration of racial issues. I write about the neighborhood and my Dad’s death in some of my poetry, and essays; episodes from my childhood are touched on in my children’s books, so I will not...Read more about Richard Michelson
Leslie Patricelli
I live in the mountain town of Ketchum, Idaho. Spaghetti is my favorite food and I wear jeans most of the time. I have no rhythm, but I married a professional drummer! Second to playing with my kids, writing and illustrating picture books is my favorite thing to do. I've been drawing cartoons and writing stories since I was a little kid. Sometimes my pictures and stories were a bit twisted, to say the least. This worried my parents, but I turned out okay. Before I started publishing books, I had lots of other jobs: I've worked as a ski...Read more about Leslie Patricelli
Erica Silverman
Erica Silverman is the author of more than twenty-five picture books and early readers, as well as poems, articles and educational materials. Her books include: the Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa series, the first of which was a 2006 Theodore (Seuss) Geisel Honor Book; Hanukkah Hop; Sholom’s Treasure: How Sholom Aleichem Became a Writer, winner of the 2006 Sydney Taylor Award and a National Jewish Book Award runner up; Big Pumpkin, a perennial Halloween favorite; and Don’t Fidget a Feather, California Young Reader Medal winner. Having taught nursery school, English as a Second Language and writing, her students have ranged in...Read more about Erica Silverman
Natasha Wing
Natasha Wing is best known for her popular paperback series based on the beloved story, The Night Before Christmas. Her stories are about families celebrating holidays and other big events in kids’ lives such as the first day of school and losing a tooth. Titles include The Night Before Easter, the original book in the series which was published in 1999, and The Night Before Kindergarten, which has regularly been on bestseller lists. Wing’s multicultural book, Jalapeño Bagels, is based on a real bakery in Arcata, California where she used to buy sesame seed bagels and "slugs." The book includes...Read more about Natasha Wing
Robert Lypsyte
Robert Lipsyte was raised in New York City, a fat kid who became a writer while in middle school so he could kill off skinny kids in his stories. Once he lost weight, he realized that writing, even without killing skinny kids, was the most fun in the world. Lipsyte was a prize-winning sports-writer for the New York Times, and an Emmy-award winning host for a nightly public affairs show on PBS. But he has always loved best writing YA and Middle Grade novels. His first YA was “The Contender.” His most recent book, “The Twinning Project,” is about two...Read more about Robert Lypsyte
Sarah Prineas
Sarah Prineas is the author of middle-grade fantasy novels The Magic Thief (HarperCollins, 2008), The Magic Thief: Lost (HarperCollins, 2009), and The Magic Thief: Found (HarperCollins 2010). Foreign rights to the series have been sold in 19 languages, and audio versions are available in English, German, and Dutch. On its release, The Magic Thief received three starred reviews, and was a Booksense Top Ten Pick for spring/summer 2008. In addition, the book was a 2009 E.B. White Read-aloud Award honor book, was on the 2008 New York Public Library’s 100 Books for Reading and Sharing list, was a 2009 National...Read more about Sarah Prineas
Peter Brown
I was born and raised in Hopewell, New Jersey, which is a great place to live especially if you like mosquitoes and poison ivy. I've always loved to write and draw, and I even made a few picture books when I was just a lil' guy. When I was growing up I divided my time between drawing animals and running from them. That's why I'm so fast. I loved drawing animals at the zoo, but when I couldn't go to the zoo I drew the animals at the farms near my home, and became the punch line to many bad...Read more about Peter Brown
Jill McElmurry
Jill McElmurry has been illustrating professionally since 1977 and unprofessionally since she could hold a crayon. The first books she remembers loving were Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson and Animal Fair by Alice and Martin Provensen. She also loved Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson and What Do You Say, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin and Maurice Sendak. Later on she loved Homer Price and the Donut Machine, Alice in Wonderland, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and one about bread dough that keeps rising and rising. She wishes she could remember the name of it. She’s lived in 40...Read more about Jill McElmurry