Author Alley

Michael Arndt

Michael Arndt is an award-winning graphic designer whose love of animals and typography inspired this book. Raised in Kinderhook, NY, he now lives in New York City with his yellow dog Clooney who sometimes says woof and his black cat Aiden who often says meow. Cat Says Meow: and other animalopoeia is his debut book and recipient of a Kirkus star as well as national and international design awards.Visit him on the web at: www.animalopoeia.comEmail him at: info@animalopoeia.comFollow him on Facebooks: www.facebook.com/animalopoeiaFollow him on Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/animalopoeiaFollow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/animalopoeia

Jeff Baron

Marina Budhos is an author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Her latest book, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom & Science, co-authored with her husband Marc Aronson, was a 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist. She has also published the young adult novel Tell Us We’re Home and Ask Me No Questions, which has received numerous honors, including ALA Best Books and Notable, winner of the first James Cook Teen Book Award, NY Public Library Books for the Teenage, Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best, and is taught in school districts throughout the country. In 2016, she will publish two books: The Eyes of the World: A Story of a Man, a Woman, & a Camera, co-authored with Marc Aronson, about the photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro inventing modern photojournalism during the Spanish Civil War. She will also publish, a follow-up to Ask Me No Questions, taking on surveillance in a post 9/11 era. Her other books include The Professor of Light, House of Waiting, and a nonfiction book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers. She is currently an associate professor of English at William Paterson University, is married to the author Marc Aronson and lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with their two sons, Sasha and Rafi.

Visit her on the web at: http://www.marinabudhos.com/

Peter Catalanotto

Jason Edwards is an award winning author, writer, artist, educator, storyteller, scholar, athlete, producer of entertaining educational enrichment programs for schools and libraries, and an authority on children’s anxieties who has over 20 years of experience developing innovative ways to entertain, instruct, and inspire children. Even his frightfully funny chapter books, the Chronicles of the Monster Detective Agency, help children by inspiring them to confront their fears and modeling ways to control anxiety, which has earned the books the Mom’s Choice Award for Family Friendly Media and an endorsement from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. In addition to authoring, Jason performs his Library Skills-Building MONSTER HUNT program and his Destination: INSPIRATION InterACTIVE StoryCrafting Assemblies and Workshops at over 100 schools and libraries across the nation, and his gift for teaching and inspiring children, and for illuminating anxiety issues for children and adults alike, have been featured in all forms of media including The New Jersey Observer, The NY Daily News, WCBS TV, Talk of Connecticut Radio, and Sirius Satellite Book Channel. Email him at: Jason@RogueBearPress.com

Visit him on the web at: http://j81502.wix.com/MonsterAuthor, http://RogueBearPress.com/Authors.html or http://MonsterDetectiveAgency.com

Michael Garland

Michael Garland is an award winning author and illustrator. His greatest success has been for writing and illustrating children's picture books. Garland’s Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook won the California and Delaware State Reading Awards. He is author and illustrator of thirty children’s picture books and illustrator for more than forty books by other authors. New books include Lost Dog, Tugboat, Car Goes Far, Fish Had A Wish published by Holiday House. Fish Had A Wish was a Star Review of Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Top Twenty Five Picture Books of the Year. New from Scholastic is Where’s My Homework? Also from Scholastic, Oh, What A Christmas!, Grandpa’s Tractor, Boyds Mills was selected for the Original Art of Children’s Book Show at the Society of Illustrators in NYC. Garland’s recent book, Miss Smith and the Haunted Library made the New York Times Best Seller list. New from Dutton is Miss Smith Under the Ocean. Michael Garland has illustrated for celebrity authors like James Patterson and Gloria Estefan on best selling picture books. Michael Garland’s illustrations for Patterson’s SantaKid were the inspiration for Sak’s Fifth’s Avenue’s Christmas holiday window display in New York City. Garland’s Christmas Magic has become a season classic and is currently in development as an animated Christmas special. His work has won many honors and is frequently included in the Society of Illustrators and the Original Art of Children's book show as well as annuals from Print, Graphics and Communications Arts magazines. Recently, Michael Garland was included on the list of the top one hundred Irish Americans by Irish American Magazine. Michael Garland is frequently asked to speak at schools, literary conferences and festivals across the country.

Email him at: garlandmp@comcast.net

Follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.garland.56?fref=ts

Find him on the web at: http://www.garlandpicturebooks.com or http://www.michaelgarlandfineart.com

Gary Golio

Gary Golio is a visual artist, musician, and psychotherapist. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling JIMI: Sounds Like A Rainbow – A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Children’s Books of 2010 and recipient of the 2011 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award. Golio is also the author of When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan, and Spirit Seeker: The Musical Journey of John Coltrane, named a Kirkus Reviews’ Best Children’s Book of 2012 and one of New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading & Sharing. His newest is Bird & Diz (Candlewick), about the creators and creation of Bebop jazz. Each story highlights an artist’s roots and early influences, promoting the idea that artists are models of persistence and commitment, embodying values of imagination, hopefulness, and self-acceptance. Find him on the web at: www.garygolio.com/ Follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GaryGolio

Email him at: Gary@garygolio.com

Natalie S. Harnett

Steven Kellogg fell into a love of writing and drawing at an early age. He had a great appreciation for picture books as a child. Since the beginning of his writing career, Kellogg has authored or collaborated on approximately 125 books. Over the years, Steven has visited thousands of schools and has presented to countless audiences—young and old. He still remains a very popular speaker for schools and conferences.Steven today continues to be a passionate and tireless advocate for animals and for literacy. He organizes fund-raisers in his community for a local animal shelter. He is also vice-president of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance (a national not-for-profit organization that was created in 1997 by award-winning children’s book authors and illustrators, which advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries to be an ongoing priority on our national agenda).

Besides garnering critical and popular acclaim for his books, Steven has received several awards for his lifetime contribution to children’s literature, including the prestigious Regina Medal in 1989. Steven has recently been announced as the winner of the esteemed Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature for 2015, given out by the NYLA-SSLA (New York Library Association–Section of School Librarians), which recognizes a New York State author who has demonstrated, through a body of work, a consistently superior quality which supports the curriculum and educational goals of New York State schools. He is currently busy working on future projects for several publishers and continues to share his love for books, animals, nature, and art to children and adults.

Find him on the web at: http://www.stevenkellogg.com/

Thanhha Lai

Susanna Reich

Adam Silvera

Ed Young, Caldecott Medalist, is the illustrator of over eighty books for children, seventeen of which he has also written. Born in Tientsin, China, Ed Young grew up in Shanghai and later moved to Hong Kong. As a young man, he came to the United States on a student visa to study architecture but turned instead to his love of art. Young began his career as a commercial artist in advertising and found himself looking for something more expansive, expressive, and timeless. He discovered all this, and more, in children’s books. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Young has since taught at the Pratt Institute, Yale University, Naropa Institute, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 1990, his book Lon Po Po was awarded the Caldecott Medal. He has also received two Caldecott Honors – for The Emperor and the Kite and Seven Blind Mice – and was twice nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the highest international recognition given to children's book authors and illustrators who have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. Young lives in Westchester County, New York, with his two daughters, and two cats.