Mo Willems is an American writer, animator, voice actor, and children's book author. His work includes creating the animated television series Sheep in the Big City for Cartoon Network, working on Sesame Street and The Off-Beats, and creating the popular children's book series Elephant and Piggie.
Antonio Sacre is an American author, solo performer, and storyteller. He writes and performs internationally, in English and Spanish.
Joseph (Joe) Hayes is an American author and teller of stories mainly found in the folklore of the American Southwest. Hayes was an early pioneer of bilingual Spanish/English storytelling. Joe currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Margaret Read MacDonald is an American storyteller, folklorist, and award-winning children's book author. She has published more than 65 books, of stories and about storytelling, which have been translated into many languages. She has performed internationally as a storyteller, is considered a "master storyteller" ,and has been dubbed a "grand dame of storytelling". She focuses on creating "tellable" folktale renditions, which enable readers to share folktales with children easily. MacDonald has been a member of the board of the National Storytelling Network and president of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.
Zomo the Rabbit is a 1992 book by Gerald McDermott based on a Nigerian folktale that explains why the rabbit runs so fast from other animals.
The Hired Hand: An African-American Folktale is a 1997 book by Robert D. San Souci and illustrator Jerry Pinkney based on an African American folktale about an itinerant worker who is able to rejuvenate and resurrect people.
The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll is a 2007 picture book by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is about a girl, Nella, living during the Great Depression who amazingly receives a doll for Christmas, initially doesn't share with her sisters but then relents after discovering that it's not fun to play by herself.
Run Away Home is a 1997 book by Patricia McKissack. Set in the late 19th century, it is about an African-American girl, Sarah Jane, who finds an Apache boy in the family barn and the subsequent affects on their lives.
A Friendship for Today is a 2007 book by Patricia McKissack about the life of a girl, Rosemary Patterson, attending one of the first integrated Missouri schools during the 1950s.
Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts is a 1996 book by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.
Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues is a 1994 book by Patricia McKissack and Fredrick McKissack, Jr. It tells the history African-American and Latin American involvement with baseball in the United States.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a 1997 retelling of Rudyard Kipling's classic story by Jerry Pinkney about a mongoose that protects a family from two cobras. The book won a Caldecott honor in 1998 for its illustrations.
Ma Dear's Aprons is a 1997 book by Patricia McKissack about the relationship between a son, David Earl, and his mother, Ma dear.
Ol' Clip-Clop: A Ghost Story is a 2013 children's picture book by Patricia McKissack about John Leep, a stingy landlord, who cheats a tenant but then gets his come-uppance.
The People Could Fly: The Picture Book is a 2004 picture book by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It is a reissue, by the Dillons, of Hamilton's title story of her 1985 book The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales and is about a group of African-American slaves who call upon old magic to escape their oppression by flying away.
Tonya K. Bolden is an American writer best known for her works of children's literature, especially children's nonfiction.
Young adult fiction and children's literature in general have historically shown a lack of diversity, that is, a lack of books with a main character who is, for example, a person of color, from the LGBTQIA+ community, or disabled. The numbers of children's book authors have shown a similar lack of diversity. Diversity is considered beneficial since it encourages children of diverse backgrounds to read and it teaches children of all backgrounds an accurate view of the world around them. In the mid-2010s, more attention was drawn to this problem from various quarters. In the several years following, diversity numbers seem to have improved: One survey showed that in 2017, a quarter of children's books were about minority protagonists, almost a 10 percent increase from 2016.
James E. Ransome is an American illustrator of children's books.
Patricia Marcantonio is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of the Felicity Carrol mystery series and an award-winning collection of short stories, Red Ridin' in the Hood and Other Cuentos.
Mama Cat Has Three Kittens is a 1998 children's picture book, written and illustrated by Denise Fleming. It is about a mother cat and her three kittens: Fluffy and Skinny who are well behaved, and imitate their mother, and Boris, who naps until the other three rest when he becomes boisterous.
