In Only One Year, Sharon is dismayed to learn that her two-year-old brother, Di Di, is being sent to live in China with his grandparents for a year. In this BookTalk, the author talks about families—her own and those of her stud...

Only the Mountains Do Not Move is a photographic essay about a Maasai tribe in Kenya, Africa, as it adapts to changes in lifestyle, land, and farming practices. In this BookTalk, Jan Reynolds discusses living among the Maasa...

Above the treetops of Puerto Rico flies a flock of parrots as green as their island home. . . . These are Puerto Rican parrots. They lived on this island for millions of years, and then they nearly vanished from the earth forev

P...

Passage to Freedom is my first foray into children's picture book nonfiction. Being nonfiction, I could not construct a story to suit my own creative desires – I had to reconstruct what had already happened.

Eloise Greenfield is a celebrated poet and the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and biography for children, including the Coretta Scott King Award winner Africa Dream, and The Coretta Scott King A...

Author Kimberly Reid joins us for the interview below to discuss diversity in books, her favorite writing, and her dream heist team!

Why was it important to you to depict an interracial relationship in your story?

Author and poet Francisco X. Alarcón has always followed his dreams. “I believe that dreams are an essential component of our life as humans,” says the author. “Life would be really incomplete and maybe impos...

Puffling Patrol is the fascinating story of the annual rescue of baby puffins on the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland. In this BookTalk, Ted and Betsy Lewin discuss child activism and what it’s like to be a husband a...

Growing up on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona, Ira Hayes was a quiet, shy boy. He never wanted to be the center of attention, and at school he often felt lonely and out of place. By the time Ira was in his late teens, World War II was rag...

 
Author, EdNah New Rider Weber (left) and Photographer, Richela Renkun

Rattlesnake Mesa: Stories from a Native American Childhood is a true account of a spirited Native American girl’s experiences growing u...

With the release of the movie Ray by Universal Studios in 2004, the legend of Ray Charles is more alive then ever. In 1973 T.Y. Crowell published Ray Charles, written by Sharon Bell Mathis and illustrated by George ...

As an educator, Therese On Louie has seen many children who have had to deal with hardships. Maybe the parents fight, or one parent is ill, or the family moves a lot. She decided children with these, and similar life situations, woul...

In Seaside Dream, Cora is excited to celebrate her grandmother's birthday with her large Cape Verdean family, but is worried about what gift to get her. In this BookTalk,

Seeds of Change tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In this BookTalk, author Jen Cullerton Johnson and illustrator Sonia Lynn Sadler discuss Wangari...

Ed Young is one of the most versatile and highly honored illustrators of children’s books today. Born in Tientsin, China, he later moved to Shanghai, where he was raised.  In the 1950s he moved to the United States and att...

In 2005, author Trish Marx and photographer Cindy Karp traveled to Israel to meet the children at Menashe Summer Peace Camp. The camp experiences and the daily lives of Alya, an Israeli Palestinian girl, and Yuval, an Israeli Jewish boy, became...

Silent Star is the story of how William Hoy became a successful baseball player despite being deaf. Moving from amateur clubs to the minor leagues and eventually to the majors, Hoy proved himself again and again—overcoming ...

Ask author Paula Yoo when she knew she wanted to become a writer, and you will get an interesting answer. "Honestly, I can't remember ever NOT wanting to be a writer," says Yoo. "I began writing short stories and l...