Bookable Authors: Upper Grades (8 12) Social Studies
Arie Kaplan
Arie Kaplan has written jokes and comedy sketches for the television series TruTV Presents: World’s Dumbest…. He has also written humor articles for MAD Magazine. Aside from his work as a comedy writer, Arie has written numerous nonfiction books for young… View →
Amber J. Keyser
Evolutionary biologist-turned-author Amber J. Keyser has a MS in zoology and a PhD in genetics. She writes both fiction and non-fiction for tweens and teens. Her young adult novels include Pointe, Claw (Carolrhoda Lab, 2017), an explosive story about two girls claiming the territory of… View →
Shing Yin Khor
Shing Yin Khor is a cartoonist and installation artist exploring personal narrative, new human rituals, and collaborative worldbuilding through graphic memoir and large scale art structures, and creating comics at the intersection of race, gender, immigrant stories, and queerness. They… View →
Sara Latta
Sara Latta has written several books for middle grade and YA readers, including Body 2.0: The Engineering Revolution in Medicine (Twenty-First Century Books, 2020); Black Holes: The Weird Science of the Most Mysterious Objects in the Universe (Twenty-First Century Books, 2018); Smash!… View →
Erica B. Marcus
Erica Marcus has spent over fifteen years learning from the teens she works with as a classroom teacher, mindfulness educator/director, and a wilderness youth therapy field guide. She is based in Portland, Maine. View →
Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
Stephanie Sammartino McPherson wrote her first children’s story in college. She enjoyed the process so much that she’s never stopped writing. A former teacher and freelance newspaper writer, she has written more than thirty books and numerous magazine stories. Her recent… View →
Christy Mihaly
Christy Mihaly writes nonfiction books for kids, about topics including moose, redwoods, fashion, and math. She also writes articles, stories, and poetry, and blogs about children’s literature. She writes in Vermont, under the supervision of her dog and cat. View →
Michael Miller
Michael Miller is a prolific and best-selling writer. He has written more than 200 books over the past three decades on a variety of nonfiction topics. He graduated from Indiana University and worked in the publishing business. He lives in Minnesota with his wife Sherry. View →
Marissa Moss
Marissa Moss is the award-winning author-illustrator of more than 75 books, from picture books to middle-grade to graphic novels. She is best known for the Amelia’s Notebook series, which has sold millions of copies. She lives in California. View →
Karen Cherro Quiñones
Karen Cherro Quiñones became interested in the early history of New York City while working in the Wall Street area where many sites dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can still be seen. She eventually left her corporate career to become a full-time historian. Her… View →
Michael J. Rosen
Michael J. Rosen is the acclaimed author of some three dozen books for children of all ages (and even more for grown-ups!), including The Cuckoo’s Haiku and Other Poems for Birders; Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Famiy’s Farm (which he both wrote and illustrated with some… View →
Victorya Rouse
Victorya Rouse was born in Red Wing, Minnesota. She began her teaching career as Peace Corps Volunteer in Eswatini, Africa. Living and traveling in southern Africa she realized that access to education was the key to self-determination. This inspired her to become an English as a Second… View →
Heather E. Schwartz
When Heather E. Schwartz was thirteen years old, she tracked down several lead orphans from the 1983 movie “Annie” and interviewed them by phone. As an adult, she realized she could apply those same early instincts to a career as a journalist and writer. She is the author of… View →
Monique Gray Smith
Monique Gray Smith is a mom, an award winning, bestselling author, and professional consultant. Her recent writing includes Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, My Heart Fills with Happiness, You Hold Me Up, Lucy and Lola, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, When We Are… View →
Katherine Speller
Katherine Speller is an editor, writer, researcher and journalist based in Brewster, New York. She is also the Editorial Director of Evergreen and Growth at Parents. Her work covering health, wellness, reproductive rights, social issues, politics, technology, sex and relationships,… View →
Zach Stafford
Zach Stafford is an award-winning journalist who currently serves as editor-at-large of BuzzFeed and co-host of the daily news podcast News O’Clock. Zach regularly provides commentary on television and has appeared on the BBC, CNN View →
Whitney Stewart
Whitney Stewart is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction books for kids—for toddlers to young adult. Her research has taken her to Nepal with Sir Edmund Hillary, to India to interview the Dalai Lama, and to China’s Great Wall. She also teaches mindfulness and meditation View →
Dr. Artika R. Tyner
Dr. Artika Tyner is a passionate educator, award-winning author, civil rights attorney, sought-after speaker, and advocate for justice. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is the founder of the Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute. View →
Michael Wertz
Michael Wertz is a commercial artist who creates images for books, products, ads, CDs, and movie trailers. He lives in Oakland, California, and teaches at the California College of the Arts in the illustration department. View →
