Pam Muñoz Ryan writes stories that often feature strong female protagonists. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Pam Muñoz Ryan discusses her stories and winning the 2000 Pura Belpré Medal for Esperanza Rising.

Author Laurie Halse Anderson writes about the past and present, real people and imagined characters. She plays with form and style to present individuals from the inside, and looks at real history and women who played a role in it. Her middle-grade historical fiction book, Chains, was a National Book Award finalist. She also has a particular love for animals, expressed in her ongoing series, Vet Volunteers. 

Tanya Lee Stone writes a little bit of everything — science, history, biography, poetry, and fiction — for kids and teens. She’s written middle grades biographies of pioneering women in the NASA space program, Amelia Earhart, and Ella Fitzgerald; picture books about suffragettes and artist Alexander Calder; and a series of books about animal camouflage. She throws herself into her research to provide context for the facts and to make her stories come alive. As Stone herself says, “A book isn’t the end of information on a topic, a book is the beginning of a conversation.”

Robert Neubecker’s picture books have zip — they burst with color, energy, and fun. Neubecker can really capture the world through a kid’s eyes, whether it’s the first day of school (Wow! School!), a first trip to the big city (Wow! City!) or the trials and tribulations of being the big sister when the new baby arrives (Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth).

Pamela Duncan Edwards often teams up with illustrator Henry Cole to create alliterative children’s books like Some Smug Slug. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Pamela Duncan Edwards talks about her years as a school librarian and the joys of her work.

Nikki Giovanni is a woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, and her writing is all the stronger for it. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, the poet and author discusses everything from Rosa Parks to reading with her son. She even clarifies the link between books, chocolate, and Harry Potter!

Caldecott-winner Mo Willems grew up in New Orleans. He spent much of his youth telling stories and drawing. Willems especially loved reading “Peanuts” comics and then sketching Snoopy and Charlie Brown himself. “I even wrote a letter to Charles Schulz,” Willems recalls, “saying that I wanted his job when he died.” During high school, Willems acted in plays and started doing standup routines at comedy clubs.

As the youngest of five sisters, Megan McDonald could hardly get in a word edgewise at the dinner table. As a result, she began to stutter sometime during elementary school. That’s when Megan’s mother bought her a notebook so that she could at least get her words onto paper. Little did Megan’s older sisters know, this quiet observer would one day become a famous author whose words would be translated into multiple languages. Moreover, many of the anecdotes that appear in the Judy Moody books are actually based on real incidents — like the time Megan scared one of her sisters by hiding a fake hand in the toilet.

Laura Vaccaro Seeger writes and illustrates children’s books that seem disarmingly simple at first but reveal complex, conceptual ideas with every reading. She tackles big themes like friendship (Dog and Bear) and creativity (One Boy), and uses her design and animation background to bring a visual freshness to her books. Seeger’s award-winning and best-selling picture books encourage readers young and old to look closely and perhaps discover something hidden, and profound.