Lucy Maud Montgomery, published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success; the title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. Most of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island, and those locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site – namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park. She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Carol Matas is a Canadian writer. She has had more than forty-three books for young people published over several decades, including science fiction, fantasy, historical, contemporary, realistic fiction, historical fiction and foods science. Her novels often reflect a Jewish perspective, and her best-known are set during the Holocaust. Her books have been highly honored, including having been shortlisted for the Governor General's Awards twice.
Brian Moore, was a novelist and screenwriter from Northern Ireland who emigrated to Canada and later lived in the United States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland during and after the Second World War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal divisions of The Troubles, and has been described as "one of the few genuine masters of the contemporary novel". He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. Moore also wrote screenplays and several of his books were made into films.
Maurice Baring was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and Royal Air Force.
Meggin Patricia Cabot is an American novelist. She has written and published over 50 novels of young adult and adult fiction and is best known for her young adult series The Princess Diaries, which was later adapted by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films. Cabot has been the recipient of numerous book awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice, and many others. She has also had number-one New York Times bestsellers, and more than 25 million copies of her books are in print across the world.
Paterson Davis Joseph is a British actor and author. He was announced as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University in October 2022.
Megan Jo McDonald is an American children's literature author. Her most popular works is the series of books which concern a third grade girl named Judy Moody. McDonald has also written many picture books for younger children and continues to write. Her most recent work was the Julie Albright series of books for American Girl.
Dear America is a series of historical fiction novels for children published by Scholastic starting in 1996. By 1998, the series had 12 titles with 3.5 million copies in print. The series was canceled in 2004 with its final release, Hear My Sorrow. However, it was relaunched in the fall of 2010. Each book is written in the form of a diary of a young woman's life during important events or time periods in American history. The Dear America series covers a wide range of topics, including: the Pilgrims' journey to the New World, the Salem Witch Trials, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, western expansion, slavery, immigration, nineteenth-century prairie life, the California Gold Rush of 1849, the Great Depression, Native Americans' experiences, racism, coal mining, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the fight for women's suffrage, the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Battle of the Alamo, the Vietnam War, and more. The breadth of historical topics covered in these books through fiction makes the Dear America series a favorite teaching device of history schoolteachers around the country. The re-launch series and releases contain a new cover style and different pictures of the main characters than those of the original releases. Originally all the books had a ribbon inserted as a bookmark for the books but were removed in the later releases. Several of the stories were filmed and released on videotape.
Dear Canada is a series of historical novels marketed at kids first published in 2001 and continuing to the present. The books are published by Scholastic Canada Ltd. They are similar to the Dear America series, with each book written in the form of the diary of a fictional young woman living during an important event in Canadian history. The series covers both familiar and little-known topics such as Home Children, North-West Rebellion, and the 1837 Rebellion.
The Royal Diaries is a series of 20 books published by Scholastic Press from 1999 to 2005. In each of the books, a fictional diary of a real female figure of royalty as a child throughout world history was written by the author. The Royal Diaries was a spin-off of Scholastic's popular Dear America series. While Dear America, My Name Is America, and My America were all cancelled in 2004, The Royal Diaries continued until 2005.
Patricia C. McKissack was a prolific African American children's writer. She was the author of over 100 books, including Dear America books A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl;Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North; and Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl. She also wrote a novel for The Royal Diaries series: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba. Notable standalone works include Flossie & the Fox (1986), The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (1992), and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1992). What is Given from the Heart was published posthumously in 2019.
Kathryn Lasky is an American children's writer who also writes for adults under the names Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Her children's books include several Dear America books, The Royal Diaries books, Sugaring Time, The Night Journey, Wolves of the Beyond, and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Her awards include Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature, National Jewish Book Award, and Newbery Honor.
The Princess Diaries is a series of epistolary young adult novels written by Meg Cabot, and is also the title of the first volume, published in 2000. The series spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Children's Series Best Sellers List. The series revolves around Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis, a teenager in New York who discovers that she is the princess of a small European principality called Genovia. The series follows Mia's life throughout high school in the 2000s and juggling regular teenage life with being a royal princess. The books are noted for containing many pop culture references from the 2000s that influence some of the plot.
Kristiana Gregory is an American children's author.
My Australian Story is a series of historical novels for older children published by Scholastic Australia which was inspired by Dear America. Each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event or time period in Australian history.
My America is a series of fictional diaries of children that take place during significant moments in American history. Created by Scholastic, it is a spin-off of the series, Dear America, geared toward younger children. The series covers: Jamestown, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, Westward Expansion, Underground Railroad, and slavery. Each topic has three books and is authored by a different writer. Writers include well respected and popular children's authors, such as Mary Pope Osborne of Magic Tree House fame. The series was discontinued in 2004, but the books continue to be a popular teaching device for introducing American history to elementary school age children.
My Story is a series of historical novels for children published by Scholastic UK. They are similar to the Dear America series, each book is written in the form of the diary of a fictional young woman or man living during an important event in history. Most of the books feature British characters and history, but some are about non-British characters during important events and times in world history.
My Story is a series of historical novels for older children published by Scholastic New Zealand which was inspired by Dear America. Each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event or time period in New Zealand history. The series was renamed My New Zealand Story around 2010 when the style of the covers also changed.
John Michael Drinkrow Hardwick, known as Michael Hardwick, was an English author who was best known for writing books and radio plays which featured Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes. He adapted most of the episodes of the Sherlock Holmes BBC radio series 1952–1969.