Authors 2019

DAVID A. KELLY is a former Little League right fielder and the author of the BALLPARK MYSTERIES and MVP sports book series from Random House, as well as BABE RUTH AND THE BASEBALL CURSE, and the picture book MIRACLE MUD. He lives outside Boston with his family. For more information, visit davidakellybooks.com.

Jacqueline Jules is the award-winning author of 40 children’s books, including theZapato Power series, the Sofia Martinez series, Unite or Die: How Thirteen  States Became a Nation, Duck for Turkey Day, Never Say a Mean Word Again, Feathers for Peacock, The Hardest Word, and Pluto is Peeved. Also a poet, Jacqueline is the author of three poetry chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in over 100 publications, includingCricket, Cicada, Germ Magazine, YARN, The Poetry Friday Anthologies, and One Minute Till Bedtime. Visit www.jacquelinejules.com or connect on Twitter @jacquelinejules

Veera Hiranandani is the author of The Night Diary (Kokila), which received the 2019 Newbery Honor Award, the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award and the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature. The Night Diary has been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, is a New York Times Editor's Choice Pick, and was chosen as a 2018 Best Children's Book of the Year byThe New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Rewiews, among others. She is also the author of The Whole Story of Half a Girl (Yearling), which was named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asian Book Award Finalist, and the chapter book series, Phoebe G. Green (Grosset & Dunlap). She earned her MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. A former book editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College's Writing Institute and is working on her next novel.

Brigette and Kristin are passionate early-childhood literacy educators and love their hometown, Buffalo!

Amy is an American Sign Language professor, teaching in several colleges across Western New York. One of her inspirations for writing is to celebrate deaf awareness.  She earned her M.Ed in Student Affairs Administration from the University of Buffalo and her B.A. in Communication from the Rochester Institute of Technology.  She lives with her husband Dan, two boys Dylan and Noah, and her dog Shiloh in a farmhouse in rural Western New York.

Stephanie Parwulski, a Buffalo, NY native, is the author of the children’s book, Beatrice and the Sunflower Gift. She received a B.A. in English from Daemen College in May 2016, further nurturing her love for literature and composition. She enjoys writing poems, children’s books, and short stories and contributes articles about her anxiety to a website called The Mighty to raise awareness about mental health. She also loves spending time with her family and friends and working as a preschool teacher aide. Her second book, Gloria’s Hope Tree, will be published by Belle Isle Books in summer 2019.

Nick Bruel is the author and illustrator of the New York Times Bestselling series "Bad Kitty" books, among others.  He lives in Pleasantville, NY with his wife Carina, their daughter Izzy, a grumpy old man shaped like a brown, one-eyed dachshund, and a sometimes-good, sometimes-bad cat named Rose.

Three-time Pura Belpré Award honoree Lulu Delacre has been writing and illustrating children's books since 1980. The New York Times Bestselling artist was born and raised in Puerto Rico to Argentinean parents. Delacre says her Latino heritage and her life experiences inform her work. Her 39 titles include Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America, a Horn Book Fanfare Book in print for almost 30 years. Her bilingual picture book ¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! Descubriendo el bosque nublado; Olinguito, from A to Z! Unveiling the Cloud Forest  and her story collection  Us, in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos have received multiple starred reviews and awards. Her latest work is the art of Turning Pages by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Delacre has lectured internationally and served as a juror for the National Book Awards. She has exhibited at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; The Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators in New York; the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico and the Zimmerli Art Museum; among other venues. Most recently Reading is Fundamental has honored her with a Champion of Children’s Literacy Award. For more visit her at www.luludelacre.com.

Shelley Rotner is the author and photo-illustrator of 50 award-winning children’s books. Her books are mostly about diversity and the environment. It is her hope that they will lead children and their parents and/or teachers to engage in conversations and inspire observations and curiosity about the world they live in. Some of her recent books include: Colors, Hello Autumn! Grow! Raise! Catch! How We Get Our Food, Whose Eye am I? ,Families, Body Actions, Body Bones and All Kinds of Friends. Some of her awards and acknowledgements include: University of Maine Correll Book Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Informational text- Families.- “packed with photographs of families of many different sizes, shapes, ages and colors.” Grow, Raise, Catch! Subaru nonfiction finalist and Green Earth Book Award. Garbage Helps our Gardens Grow- Green Earth Book Award- Hello, Spring! Starred Kirkus review: “Among the vibrant plants and baby animals are children whose appearances are diverse in skin, hair, and eye color but alike in their exuberance at being outdoors in the spring.”

Debbi Michiko Florence is the author of children’s books. Her chapter book series Jasmine Toguchi, about a spunky Japanese American 8-year-old girl, has been chosen as Junior Library Guild selections and placed on select “best of” lists. Debbi is also the author of the two early chapter book series Dorothy and Toto and My Furry Foster Family. She has spoken on panels and taught workshops at conferences and book festivals, and presented at numerous schools.

Website: http://debbimichikoflorence.com/

Adam Lehrhaupt is the award-winning picture book author of Warning: Do Not Open This Book! (S&S, 2013), Please: Open This Book! (S&S, 2015), Chicken in Space (A six book HarperCollins series continuing with Chicken in School June 20, 2017), and I Will Not Eat You (S&S, 2016), as well as the upcoming I Don’t Draw, I Color (S&S, 2017), Wordplay (Scholastic, July 25, 2017), This is a Good Story (S&S, September 12, 2017), Idea Jar (S&S, Spring 2018) and several more he is not yet at liberty to discuss. He has traveled to six continents, performed on Broadway, and lived on a communal farm. Adam firmly believes that opening a book is a good thing, even if there are monkeys in it. He currently lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, with his wife, two sons, and two bizarre dogs. Follow Adam on Twitter, Instagram and Google+ @Lehrhaupt for the occasional brilliant thought or picture, and at adamlehrhaupt.com.