Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Author
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of several books, including Operation Sisterhood, a BCALA Best of the Best and IndieNext Top Ten Pick; Makeda Makes a Birthday Treat, a Bank Street and Chicago Public Library Best of the Year title; Kirkus Best of the Year It Doesn’t Take a Genius, and 8th Grade Superzero, a Notable Book for a Global Society and Amazon Editors’ Pick. She co-authored NAACP Image award nominee Two Naomis, and The Sun Does Shine (Young Readers Edition), a School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library Best of the Year.She has extensive experience in literacy education, and lives in NYC where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep. http://www.olugbemisolabooks.com
Linda Marshall
Author
Award-winning author Linda Elovitz Marshall studied cultural anthropology at Barnard College/Columbia University. After raising four children and a small flock of sheep, she pursued (but didn’t catch) a Ph.D. in anthropology, owned/operated an indie bookstore, then began writing for children. BOB MARSHALL: DEFENDER OF THE WILDERNESS (2024 Library of Congress National Book Fair selection – Montana) began because her husband is also named Bob Marshall. Linda loves researching, hiking, swimming, travel. Linda and Bob divide their time between a cabin in New York State’s Adirondack mountains and an island where cars are unnecessary: Manhattan! www.lindamarshall.com
Loree Griffin Burns
Author
Loree 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 chapter book One Long Line and the picture book You’re Invited to a Moth Ball. Learn more at www.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 Life After Whale written by Andrea Wang. 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 next book, Hurricane, will be published in the summer of 2025. He lives in South Burlington, VT with his wife, Deirdre Gill, their children.
Kate Messner
Author
New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and has written over sixty books for kids who wonder, too. Her titles include award-winning picture books like Over and Under the Snow , The Next Scientist, and The Scariest Kitten in the World as well as novels for older readers like Breakout and The Trouble with Heroes. Kate also writes the popular History Smashers graphic nonfiction series and leads the multi-author team behind The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class chapter books. She lives on Lake Champlain and is a proud Adirondack 46er.
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.
Tracey Baptiste
Author
Tracey Baptiste is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-six books for children including the popular JUMBIES series including THE JUMBIES, RISE OF THE JUMBIES, and THE JUMBIE GOD’S REVENGE as well as the picture book LOOKING FOR A JUMBIE. She writes picture books, middle grade, and young adult, fiction and nonfiction, and has contributed to several anthologies. Her 2025 books are the middle grade novel MOKO MAGIC: MUSEUM MAYHEM, the sequel to CARNIVAL CHAOS and the picture book SUPER GOAT GIRL. Find Tracey online at http://www.traceybaptiste.com and connect on Instagram @traceybaptistewrites.
Kyle Lukoff
Author
Kyle Lukoff is the author of many books for young readers. His debut middle-grade novel, Too Bright To See, received a Newbery honor, the Stonewall award, and was a National Book Award finalist. His picture book When Aidan Became A Brother also won the Stonewall, and his book Call Me Max has been banned in schools across the country. He has forthcoming books about queer history, unicycles, breakups, and lots of other topics. While becoming a writer he worked as a bookseller for ten years, and then nine more years as a school librarian.
James E. Ransome
Author & Illustrator
James E. Ransome has been honored with the 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award by the
American Library Association in recognition of his exceptional contributions to Children’s
Literature. With a career spanning of over 33 years, James has illustrated more than 70 books.
His passion for drawing was kindled in Rich Square, NC, and as a teenager, he moved to
Bergenfield, NJ, before pursuing a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Ransome’s remarkable talent has garnered him numerous accolades, including the prestigious
Coretta Scott King Awards, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, ALA Notables, a Jane Addams
Award, NAACP Image awards and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators, along with
having his illustration used on the cover of the Society of Illustrators 62 nd Annual of Illustration.
In recent years, James has extended his artistic prowess to create theater posters for
Washington DC’s Arena Stage. Furthermore, his illustrations have been featured in the History
Channel Documentary “Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War,” narrated by James’ childhood
basketball idol, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. James also is a regular illustration contributor to
California’s Alta Journal.
He resides and works in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife, author Lesa Cline-Ransome.
Lesa Cline -Ransome
Author
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the Newbery honor award-winning author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers including Before She was Harriet, Overground Railroad, Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams and Fighting With Love: The Legacy of John Lewis. Her numerous honors include the Jane Addams Award, the Christopher Award, Kirkus, and SLJ Best Book of Year and three NAACP Image Award nominations. Her middle grade novel Finding
Langston received the Coretta Scott King Author Honor and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.One Big Open Sky is her first novel
in verse and the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Newbery Honor. When not writing, Lesa loves eating chocolate and napping. A mom to four wonderful humans, Lesa lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband and frequent collaborator, illustrator
James Ransome.
Eliot Schrefer
Author
ELIOT SCHREFER is a New York Times-bestselling author, has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, received the Stonewall Honor for best LGBTQIA+ teen book, and received the Printz Honor for best young adult book from the ALA. In naming him an Editor’s Choice, the New York Times has called his work “dazzling… big-hearted.” His science writing has appeared in Discover, Sierra, USAToday, Nautilus, and The Washington Post Magazine. He has an M.A.in Animal Studies from NYU, is on the faculty of the Hamline MFA for writing for young people, and lives with his husband in New York City.
Andrea Wang
Author
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, among other accolades. Her other books, Summer at Squee, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Luli and the Language of Tea, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She lives in Colorado with her family. For more information about Andrea and her books, visit www.andreaywang.com.
Amy Guglielmo
Author
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 BFYR 2017) and the 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 www.amyguglielmo.com
Meg Medina
Author
Meg Medina is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a Kirkus Prize finalist, and its sequels, Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, as well as several award-winning young adult novels and picture books. About this novel she says, “To survive in the darkest depths of the sea, creatures must learn to make their own spectacular light. In so many ways, that ability mirrors what young people need on their journey of growing up.” The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Meg Medina lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Saadia Faruqi
Author
Saadia Faruqi was born in Pakistan and moved to the United States when she was twenty-two years old. She writes the wildly popular Yasmin series for beginning readers, middle-grade novels such as Yusuf Azeem Is Not A Hero, The Partition Project and The Strongest Heart, and the Eisner award nominated graphic novel Saving Sunshine. In 2017 she was featured by O Magazine as a woman making a difference in her community. Besides writing books for kids, Saadia also loves reading, binge-watching her favorite shows, and taking naps. She lives in Houston with her family. http://www.saadiafaruqi.com
Traci Sorell
Author
Best-selling author Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. She is a two-time Sibert Medal and Orbis Pictus honoree and an award-winning audiobook narrator and producer. Eight of her books have received awards from the American Indian Library Association. Other accolades include Carter G. Woodson Book Award Winner, Jane Addams Children’s Book Honor Award, Charlotte Huck Honor Award, Septima P. Clark Women in Literature Honor Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, and International Literacy Association’s Social Justice Literature Award Winner.
Adirondack Family Book Festival 