Bookable Authors: Upper Grades (8 12) Social Studies
Edha Gupta
Edha Gupta is an activist who served as the president of the Panther Anti-Racist Union during the 2021-2022 school year. Edha and fellow officers successfully protested a school board decision to ban more than 300+ books on diversity education throughout the Central York School District. View →
Sue Heavenrich
Sue Heavenrich writes about science and environmental issues and is passionate about insects. She has followed ants in the Arizona desert, tagged bumblebees in the Rocky Mountains, and tallied insects on Cocos Island, Costa Rica. When not writing, she collects data for researchers as a… View →
Ben Hodge
Ben Hodge is the founder and faculty advisor of the Panther Anti-Racist Union. A 20-year veteran of the classroom, he teaches acting classes at Central York High School and serves as the artistic director for the Central York Performing Arts program. A staunch advocate of the Diversity… View →
Charles C. Hofer
Charles C. Hofer is a wildlife biologist, photographer, and writer living in Tucson, Arizona, home to many, many venomous snakes. Hofer has been a regular contributor to several award-winning magazines, where he often writes about science and nature for young minds. This is his first… View →
Patricia Jackson
Patricia A. Jackson is a 29-year veteran in education. She spent the first half of her career as an administrator and teacher in the School District of the City of York. The latter half has been teaching World Literature and Creative Writing at Central York High School. A fierce LGBTQIA+ View →
Patrick Jones
Patrick Jones lives in Minneapolis and is the author of many novels including the Support and Defend series. A former librarian, Jones received lifetime achievement awards from the American Library Association and the Catholic Library Association. View →
Leslie Josel
Leslie Josel is an award-winning academic/life coach for teens and college students, who founded Order Out of Chaos to help students learn the skills they need to succeed in learning and in life. She is also an award-winning author, creator of an academic planner that helps students… View →
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 →
Carla Mooney
Carla Mooney is the author of several books for young readers. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three children. View →
Marissa Moss
Marissa Moss is an author-illustrator of more than eighty books, from picture books to adult graphic novels. Her books have won awards and been included in many state curricula. She lives in California. View →
Olivia Pituch
Olivia Pituch is a Pennsylvania-based activist and member of the LGBTQ+ community. She served as secretary and social media advisor on the executive board of the Panther Anti-Racist Union, a student-run club at Central York High School. Along with her fellow officers, Olivia organized… 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 →