Authors & Illustrators

Tuesday, September 17, 2013, 2:00-3:00 PM ET Kevin Henkes is the creator of nearly 50 books for children. He has written both picture books and novels; his picture books include Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse; Chrysanthemum; and Kitten’s First Full Moon, a winner of the Caldecott Medal. Among his novels are the Newbery Honor Book Olive’s Ocean and the upcoming middle grade novel The Year of Billy Miller. Join us to hear Kevin talk about his work, his inspirations, and The Year of Billy Miller--an acclaimed and irresistible story about friendship, siblings, and the perils of elementary school. And take this chance to ask him your questions live! Archive is now available!

Locomotive By Brian Floca Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-9415-2 Ages 4 and up On shelves September 3rd Many childhood obsessions come down to sheer scale. Whether it’s dinosaurs or trucks (the modern, smog belching dinosaur equivalent) or even princesses (adults are large, no matter how you approach them), size matters. [...]

Acclaimed young adult fantasy author Tamora Pierce headlined SLJ’s SummerTeen online event on July 24, and shared her love for libraries and books during the conference’s opening keynote. The 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award-winner regaled the virtual audience of librarians and teens via webcam with a presentation about her writing process, her inspirations, and other fantasy novels and writers that readers should be adding to their to-be-read piles. The following is a list of the titles that were cited in Pierce’s talk.

Acclaimed author/illustrator Ashley Bryan celebrated his 90th birthday at the Simon & Schuster Children's fall preview on July 25. The winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton and Coretta Scott King Awards was joined by librarians, publishing professionals, and fellow children's books artists.

Leonard Marcus might just be the busiest man in the world of kid lit. In June, the children’s literature historian and scholar launched a critically acclaimed exhibition at the New York Public Library (which he curated) and had a book published that celebrates the life and work of Maurice Sendak (which he edited). Marcus shared with SLJ some of the details of his recent projects, insider knowledge of children’s literature history and icons, and his belief that picture books might be the solution to saving all physical books.

From Rita Willams-Garcia's P.S. Be Eleven to Cynthia Kadohata's The Thing About Luck, these middle grade novels selected by Junior Library Guild editors showcase plucky protagonists who learn to forge their own paths despite the circumstances that come their way.

Meet Isol.  Incredibly badass Isol.  The fact that you may not know her name instantly is a crime.  We Americans are fairly . . . how to put this . . . screamingly awful about paying attention to authors and illustrators from other countries.  Isol won the most recent Astrid Lindgren Award, but she’s hardly [...]

Acclaimed children’s book creator Marc Simont, who illustrated nearly 100 children’s books, died on Saturday, July 13. He was 97. His many honors include a Caldecott Medal for the art in Janice May Udry’s A Tree is Nice, and Caldecott Honors for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and his own The Stray Dog.

Can you imagine what the covers of classic literary works written by men might look like if those books had been reclassified as “by and for women”? How would the designs be different—and how would that impact how we perceive those books? These are the questions YA author Maureen Johnson posed to her fans in “Coverflip,” a challenge to gendered book covers that limit their audiences.