Loree Griffin Burns
Author
Loree Griffin Burns writes books that celebrate our natural world and the people who study it. While researching her award-winning science books for children, she has beachcombed on both coasts, cruised the Pacific in search of plastic, surveyed birds in Central Park, stung herself with a honeybee, visited the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly (on horseback!) and lived for a week on an uninhabited volcanic island in Iceland. Recently she’s been studying the insects that live in her neighborhood, work which inspired the picture books You’re Invited to a Moth Ball and Honeybee Rescue. Learn more at loreeburns.com.
Jason Chin
Author & Illustrator
Jason Chin is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed picture books, including Your Place in the Universe and The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey. He received the 2022 Caldecott Medal for Watercress, by Andrea Wang and a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus award for Grand Canyon. His latest book is Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall, written by Lynn Brunelle. He lives in South Burlington, VT with his wife, Deirdre Gill, and their children.
Maxwell Eaton III
Author & Illustrator
Maxwell Eaton III is the acclaimed author and illustrator of dozens of books for young readers including Looking for Peppermint, the Survival Scout series, The Flying Beaver Brothers series, The Truth About Your Favorite Animals series, Bear Goes Sugaring, and more. He is passionate about sharing his love for the natural world with young readers and empowers them to get outside; make and do with their own hands; think and act with calm and collected minds; and maintain perspective and humor. He paddles, skis, and writes with his partner and two children in the Adirondack Mountains. Visit him at maxwelleaton.com.
Brian Floca
Author & Illustrator
Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of the acclaimed picture books Locomotive, winner of the Caldecott Medal, Keeping the City Going, Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, Lightship, The Racecar Alphabet, and others. He is the illustrator of numerous other titles, including Avi’s Poppy Stories series, Kate Messner’s Marty McGuire series, and, most recently, With Dad, by Richard Jackson. In addition to the Caldecott Medal, Brian’s books have received four Sibert Honor awards for distinguished informational books and have been selected three times for the annual New York Times Best Illustrated Books list. Find him online at brianfloca.com.
Amy Guglielmo
Author & Illustrator
Amy Guglielmo is an author, educator, artist, and community arts and STEAM advocate. Her twenty children’s book titles include the Christopher award-winning Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair Disney Artist Extraordinaire (Atheneum 2017) and the new What the Artist Saw series with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the Creative Director of Reading Rainbow Live and the co-founder of Outside Art: Plattsburgh Public Art Project. For more information, go to amyguglielmo.com
Meredith Ireland
Author
Meredith Ireland is a Korean American attorney and writer, born in Seoul. Her debut novel, The Jasmin Project, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and Boston Public Library Best Book of 2021. Her follow-up, Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller, was a Forbes and Seventeen Best Book of the Year. Meredith is a contributor to the middle grade anthology You Are Here and also wrote Emma & the Love Spell, which received a starred review from School Library Journal. She resides in New York with her two children and a county fair goldfish who will probably outlive them all. Find Meredith online at meredithireland.wordpress.com.
Rajani LaRocca
Author
Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor-winning middle grade novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science, and just about everywhere she looks. Learn more about Rajani and her books at RajaniLaRocca.com. She also co-hosts the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast.
Kelly Starling Lyons
Author
Kelly Starling Lyons began her journey to become a children’s book author in her hometown of Pittsburgh. She learned the art of storytelling from her mom who took her to productions at a children’s theater, wrote plays, and made up bedtime tales. Her grandparents also taught her to honor the magic of history and home. As a children’s book author and teaching artist, her mission is to center Black heroes, celebrate family, friendship and heritage. Her many books include Going Down Home with Daddy, the Ty’s Travels easy reader series, and the Jada Jones and Miles Lewis chapter book series. Find Kelly online at kellystarlinglyons.com.
Kekla Magoon
Author
Kekla Magoon is the author of many novels and nonfiction books for young readers, including The Season of Styx Malone, The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People. She has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the John Steptoe New Talent Award, three Coretta Scott King Honors, the Walter Award Honor, an NAACP Image Award, and been a finalist for the National Book Award. Visit her online at keklamagoon.com.
Kate Messner
Author
New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and has written more than fifty books for kids who wonder, too. Her award-winning titles include picture books like Over and Under the Snow, Over and Under the Waves, and The Scariest Kitten in the World; novels like Breakout and Chirp; engaging nonfiction like The Next President and the History Smashers series; the Ranger in Time historical adventures; and the Fergus and Zeke easy readers. Kate splits her time between Lake Champlain and Florida’s Gulf Coast. You can check in with her on Twitter @katemessner and at her website, katemessner.com.
Kayla Miller
Author & Illustrator
Kayla Miller is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Click graphic novel series and co-author of its spin-off series Besties. They studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and graduated with a BFA in Illustration. Kayla currently lives and works in New York state and when not writing or drawing they enjoy watching bad movies, trying to cook new recipes, playing board games, and reading other people’s graphic novels. Find Kayla online at kayla-miller.com.
Sharee Miller
Illustrator
Sharee Miller is the bestselling illustrator and author of Curlfriends: New in Town. She is best known for her acclaimed picture book Don’t Touch My Hair. Her other picturebooks include Princess Hair, and Michelle’s Garden: How the First Lady Planted Seeds of Change. Sharee is currently working on the graphic novel adaptation of One Crazy Summer by Rita Willams-Garcia. Sharee grew up in St. Thomas where she was inspired by the bright colors and sunshine of the Caribbean. She is known for her fresh and cheerful characters. Sharee loves creating picture books, graphic novels, and illustrations that depict black joy. Find Sharee online at shareemiller.com.
Raul the Third
Author & Illustrator
Raúl The Third is a New York Times bestselling and three-time Pura Belpre award-winning illustrator, author, and artist living in Boston. Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge was awarded one of the year’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2021 from the New York Times and the New York Public Library. His latest books are Tacos Today and Vamos! Let’s go Read. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican-American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He lives in Medford, MA with his wife and collaborator Elaine Bay and their son Raul the Fourth. Find him online at raulthethird.com.
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Author
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee citizen) is an acclaimed, NYTimes bestselling author, 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Her titles include Heart Unbroken, which won an American Indian Youth Literature Award, the anthology Ancestor Approved, an Indigenous Peter Pan retelling titled Sisters of the Neversea, the ghost mystery Harvest House, and her latest–Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem (Blue Stars #1), also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami. Cynthia looks forward to On a Wing and a Tear, her fall 2024 middle-grade road-trip novel. She is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins. For more information, check out cynthialeitichsmith.com.
Lauren Tarshis
Author
Lauren Tarshis is the author of the New York Times bestselling I Survived series. Each deeply researched book explores an important historical event through the eyes of a fictional child, with the goals of building knowledge, sparking curiosity, and modeling resilience. The series is read by millions of children, is used in classrooms across the country, and has been translated into ten different languages. Lauren is also Senior Vice President and Editor-in-chief/Publisher, Scholastic Magazines+, where she oversees 21 award-winning classroom magazines and digital resources, with a combined circulation of over 15 million Lauren can be found online at laurentarshis.com.
Jasmine Warga
Author
Jasmine Warga is the New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author of middle grade novels Other Words For Home, The Shape of Thunder, and A Rover’s Story. Her books have been named to numerous state award lists, and Other Words For Home was awarded a John Newbery Honor. Her newest middle grade novel, A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall, will be published on September 10th, 2024. She lives in the Chicago area with her family in a house full of books. For more information, check out jasminewarga.com.
Adirondack Family Book Festival 