Bookable Authors: Upper Grades (8 12) Social Studies
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 →
Ernesto Saade
Ernesto Saade is an El Salvador-born architect turned cartoonist. After years spent in the world of construction work, he left to pursue his master’s degree in illustration and comics from the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering. Now, he works at a non-governmental… 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 →
Nareissa Smith
Nareissa Smith is a freelance writer, lawyer, and former law professor. During her twelve years as a law professor, she taught courses in Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Critical Race Theory, and Women and the Law. Because of her background, her writing focuses on legal issues… 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 →
Alyssa Wiegand
Alyssa Wiegand is a lifelong party-thrower and feeder-of-others. She held her first formal dinner party (we’re talking suits and prom dresses) in high school and has appeared in a Japanese magazine as a manga character serving Venezuelan arepas to the citizens of Tokyo. Her… View →
Lee Wind
Lee Wind is the founding blogger and publisher of I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?, an award-winning website about books, culture, and empowerment for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Questioning and Queer youth, and their Allies. He is the author of No Way, They Were… View →
Vicki Oransky Wittenstein
Vicki Wittenstein grew up in Maplewood, N.J., and has lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband and two children for many years. She received her BA in American Civilization and Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and her JD from Cornell Law School. After prosecuting… View →
Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen lives in Massachusetts and has written more than 400 books across all genres and age ranges, including the Sydney Taylor Honor book Miriam at the River. In 2022 she was named the The Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Winner. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America… View →
Lesley Younge
Lesley Younge is a writer, mother, and educator currently teaching middle school English and math in Washington D.C. Originally from Southern California, she graduated from New York University and Bank Street College of Education. Lesley has developed curriculum with a wide range of… View →
Christine Zuchora-Walske
Christine Zuchora-Walske grew up—and eventually settled down—in Minneapolis. But as a young adult, she spent some time gallivanting elsewhere, including the University of Notre Dame, London, the University of Denver, and a small town in the cornfields of Illinois. Along the way she… View →