Bookable Authors: Elementary Grades (Prek 2) English

Helen Tansey - Sundari Photography

Kathryn Durst

Kathryn Durst received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Animation in 2013, after an internship at Pixar Animation Studios for storyboarding in her third year. She loves working on children’s entertainment, publications, and media—especially children’s books and television… View →

 
Marshall W. Johnson

Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle is the national Young People’s Poet Laureate, an Astrid Lindgren Award nominee, and the Cuban-American author of verse novels, memoirs, and picture books. Awards include a Newbery Honor for The Surrender Tree, and a Charlotte Zolotow Award for Drum Dream Girl. View →

 

Kirbi Fagan

Kirbi Fagan is a Michigan New York Best Selling illustrator. Her work includes the picture book The Summer of the Tree Army by Gloria Whelan (2021), We Are the Scrappy Ones (2025), as well as cover art in adult, YA, middle-grade, and comic books. Kirbi is driven to create books for… View →

 
Elizabeth Farish

Terry Farish

Terry Farish has been writing about refugees and immigrants for many years, informed by her early work for the Red Cross in Vietnam. She is also the author of Either the Beginning or the End of the World, and she lives in Kittery, Maine. View →

 

Julie Fortenberry

Julie Fortenberry is an abstract painter and a children’s book illustrator. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York, and lives in Philadelphia. View →

 
Photo used with permission of Laurie Friedman.

Laurie Friedman

Laurie Friedman is the author of the popular Mallory series, The Mostly Miserable Life of April Sinclair series, and many award-winning picture books. She lives in Florida. View →

 

Nicole Gabor

Nicole Gabor is a published author of more than twenty children’s picture books and early readers and an award-winning health writer and editor. She lives in Delaware with her husband, three young children, and their Goldendoodle named Ginger. View →

 

Laura Gehl

Laura Gehl is the award-winning author of more than three dozen picture books, board books, and early readers including Who Is a Scientist?, I Got a Chicken for My Birthday, Dibs!, and Climate Warriors: Fourteen Scientists and Fourteen Ways to Save our Planet. A former science teacher… View →

 

Barry Gott

Barry Gott lives in Ohio and has illustrated many children’s books, including all of the Dino-Sports and Dino-Holidays books. View →

 

Jeff Gottesfeld

Jeff Gottesfeld writes for page, stage, screen, and television. He’s won many awards, including ones from the American Library Association, the Association of Jewish Libraries, and the Writer’s Guild. His most recent title The Christmas Mitzvah was named a Sydney Taylor Honor View →

 
Photo provided by author.

Jacqueline Dembar Greene

Jacqueline Dembar Greene is the award-winning author of more than 30 books for young readers, including the American Girl® Rebecca Rubin series and The Secret Shofar of Barcelona. She lives in Wayland, Massachusetts. View →

 
Photo provided by illustrator.

Akemi Gutierrez

Akemi Gutierrez was an assistant animator for Walt Disney Features, where her films included Mulan, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. Now a full-time children’s book illustrator, drawing and painting are her favorite things to do. Akemi lives in Los Angeles, California. View →

 

Samantha Hawkins

Samantha Hawkins is a poet and essayist. She is a contributing writer to MadameNoire.com. Her work has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: I’m Speaking Now, a collection featuring stories and poems by Black women writers. She is based in Georgia. View →

 

Kim Holt

Kim Holt is an artist and children’s book illustrator. Her passion for art and drawing started at an early age, fueled by her family’s love for the arts. She received her BBA in marketing from Howard University and her BFA… View →

 
©Nakia Birnie Photography

Gwendolyn Hooks

Gwendolyn Hooks writes fiction, nonfiction, and magazine articles from home. When not writing, Gwendolyn visits schools to share her passion for books with students. She is a frequent speaker at teacher and librarian conferences. View →

 
Oliver Horne

Sarah Horne

Sarah Horne grew up in snowy Derbyshire, UK, with some goats and a brother. She then decided to be sensible and studied illustration at Falmouth College of Arts and earned a Masters degree at Kingston University. Sarah has written and/or illustrated numerous books for children and has… View →

 
Photo by Roberto Falck

Kate Hosford

Kate Hosford is the author of several picture books, including Infinity and Me which won the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book award and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book. She lives in Brooklyn. View →

 

Katey Howes

Katey Howes loved writing books for children. She was the author of the picture books Magnolia Mudd and the Super Jumptastic Launcher Deluxe, Grandmother Thorn, Be a Maker, and Rissy No Kissies which was named a Kirkus Best Children’s Book, a Rise: A Feminist Book Project List… View →

 
Photo by claudia murray photography

Heidi Smith Hyde

Heidi Smith Hyde is the director of education of Temple Sinai in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her books include Feivel’s Flying Horses, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, and Mendel’s Accordion, winner of the Sugarman Award. View →

 

Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl

Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl was born in the United States to Ugandan parents and works in international development in East and Southern Africa. Her debut picture book Sleep Well, Siba and Saba was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year 2017. View →