About Fred Wynn

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So far Fred Wynn has created 271 blog entries.

Lerangis, Peter

Lerangis, Peter

Peter Lerangis’s books have sold nearly 7 million copies and been translated into 35 languages. His nine N.Y. Times bestsellers include the entire Seven Wonders series and his 39 Clues books. Beasties, about five kids who become Central Park animals, is his latest, as is Throwback, a time-travel trilogy. Many of his novels have been Junior Library Guild selections, and his YA novel Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am, won an ALA Schneider Award. He’s also performed on Broadway, run a marathon, rock-climbed in Yosemite during a 6.1 earthquake, and graduated Harvard with a degree in biochemistry. peterlerangis.com

Awards
ALA Schneider Award for best book depicting the disability experience
ALA Quick Picks
Multiple Junior Library Guild Awards
ALA Best Books
New York Public Library Best Books
Bank Street Library Best Books

3 Fun Facts

1. My left pinkie has camptodactyly, which means it can’t straighten, and I have worked it into the plot of a book.
2. I sang and acted in a Broadway show.
3. The letters of my full name can be rearranged into Sergeant Peril.

Hiranandani, Veera

Hiranandani, Veera

Veera Hiranandani is the award-winning author of several books for young people. Her most recent book, a companion to her Newbery Honor-winning THE NIGHT DIARY, is called AMIL AND THE AFTER. She’s also the author of HOW TO FIND WHAT YOU’RE NOT LOOKING FOR, which received the 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award among other accolades. She earned her MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. A former editor at Simon & Schuster, she’s now a faculty member with the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at The Vermont College of Fine Arts. www.veerahiranandani.com

Awards

A Newbery Honor, A Sydney Taylor Award, A National Jewish Book Award Finalist, The Jane Addams Award, the New York Historical Society Children’s History Book Prize, a Walter Dean Myers Honor, and the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature.

3 Fun Facts

1. I’m from Fairfield County, CT.
2. I LOVE cats.
3. I used to think I’d grow up to be a painter or an actor.

Abbott, Tony

Abbott, Tony

Tony Abbott writes books for young readers aged 6 to 14, including Kringle, Underworlds, and the long-running series, The Secrets of Droon. He is also author of the realistic novels Firegirl (2006 Golden Kite Award for Fiction) and The Postcard (2008 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery), and the civil-rights drama, Lunch-Box Dream. His latest novels are The Summer of Owen Todd (2017), Denis Ever After (2018), and The Great Jeff (2019). Tony has been on the faculty of Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing, is a frequent conference speaker and visitor to schools. www.tonyabbottbooks.com

3 Fun Facts

1. I play the guitar middling fair, the violin terribly, and the trombone not at all.
2. I wrote poetry for twenty years before writing novels for children, and am now combining the two disciplines.

Lies, Brian

Lies, Brian

Children’s book author/illustrator Brian Lies has created nearly thirty children’s books, including his New York Times bestselling bat books (Bats at the Beach, Bats at the Library, Bats at the Ballgame and Bats in the Band). His newest books are the highly-acclaimed The Rough Patch (August, 2018) and Got to Get to Bear’s! (October, 2018).

Brian spends part of the school year traveling throughout the United States to work with students and encourage them in their goals. He lives with his family in Duxbury, Massachusetts. www.brianlies.com

3 Fun Facts

1. My hobbies mostly involve things changing from one thing to another: cooking, gardening, woodworking.
2. I once got a mini light bulb stuck in my ear and had to go to the emergency room to get it removed (I was four)
3. I’m an author/illustrator today because of an author visit to MY school when I was in 5th grade (which is one reason I believe so strongly in doing author visits!).

Stamper, Vesper

Stamper, Vesper

Vesper Stamper’s debut novel, What the Night Sings, has been longlisted for the National Book Award and received numerous accolades for recounting the seldom-told story of what happened to Holocaust survivors in the aftermath of World War 2. For twenty years, Author-Illustrator Vesper Stamper has created work through which asks the central question: how do people, especially children, who suffer trauma, go on to rise above their experiences as victims and go beyond surviving to flourishing? She believes in the dignity of every human being as made in the image of God, and in the resilience of the human spirit. www.vesperillustration.com

Grimes, Nikki

Grimes, Nikki

New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes has received the 2022 CSK Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the ALAN Award for young adult literature, the Children’s Literature Legacy Medal, the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, the Coretta Scott King Award for Bronx Masquerade, and five Coretta Scott King Honors. Her recent titles include Printz Honor and Sibert Honor Ordinary Hazards, ALA Notables Legacy:Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance and Southwest Sunrise, Kirkus Best Book Bedtime for Sweet Creatures, Kamala Harris:Rooted in Justice, Playtime for Restless Rascals, and Garvey in the Dark. Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California. www.nikkigrimes.com

3 Fun Facts

1. Once sang on the stage of the Stockholm Philharmonic in Sweden.
2. In Sweden, I was known as a singer who also wrote.
3. In addition to writing, I also paint. The first time I exhibited my watercolors, I won a blue ribbon.

Yoon, Salina

Yoon, Salina

Salina Yoon is a Geisel Honor-winning author/illustrator of novelty books, early readers, and picture books, including her beloved seven-book Penguin series that begins with PENGUIN AND PINECONE, celebrating its 10th year with a special edition releasing Nov 1, 2022. PENGUIN AND PENELOPE, the latest in the Penguin series, releases on Sept 6, 2022, which features another heartwarming story celebrating unlikely friendships, the challenges of growing up, and finding your own way.

Other awards include the Award for Excellence in a Picture Book for FOUND, the New York State Reading Association Charlotte Award for PENGUIN AND PINECONE, Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award for DUCK DUCK PORCUPINE, and many more. You can read more about Salina and her books at: www.salinayoon.com

Most recent award was the 2018 Geisel Honor for MY KITE IS STUCK AND OTHER STORIES (A Duck Duck Porcupine! Book)
2018 Honor Award: Anna Dewdney Read-Together Award for BE A FRIEND.
2017 Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award in the Beginner Fiction category: DUCK DUCK PORCUPINE!
2017 VA Readers’ Choice, FOUND

3 Fun Facts

Penguins have been following me my whole life. Here’s 3 pieces of evidence:

1. My first job was working as a frozen yogurt dispenser, at Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt!
2. My first major book deal was with Penguin Publishing (now called Penguin Random House).
3. My most well known character is Penguin, from the Penguin series!

McCully, Emily Arnold

McCully, Emily Arnold

I have been illustrating children’s books since 1967 and writing them since 1980. After college, I moved to NYC and worked on the fringes of advertising. My first children’s book came about by happy accident. I have also published adult novels and a Y/A biography of Ida M Tarbell, the Woman Who Challenged Big Business- and Won! www.emilyarnoldmccully.com

More biographies of Ada Byron Lovelace and 21 other important women are coming later this year.

3 Fun Facts

1. I wrote my first book at 3
2. I once acted in an Of-Broadway play
3. I eat weeds

Michelson, Richard

Michelson, Richard

RICHARD MICHELSON’s children’s books have been named among the Ten Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the Best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon.com. Michelson has received a National Jewish Book Award, and two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Other credits include two Massachusetts Book Award Honors, three Skipping Stones Multicultural Book Awards, three Junior Library Guild Gold Medals, and an International Reading Association Teacher’s Choice Award. Michelson owns R. Michelson Galleries which represents many of the country’s premier illustrators. www.RichardMichelson.com

Awards

National Jewish Book Award, Sydney Taylor Gold Medal, New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year, Publishers Weekly Ten Best Books of the Year, Amazon.com Best Dozen Books of the Decade

3 Fun Facts

1. I founded R. Michelson Galleries which was the first fine art gallery in the country to feature children’s book illustrations.
2. When I was having dinner with my good friend Leonard Nimoy (who I wrote a picture book about) someone approached our table and asked for MY autograph.
3. I wrote the libretto for a forthcoming off-Broadway musical on the life of artist Edvard Munch

Marchese, Allison Guertin

Marchese, Allison Guertin

Allison Marchese is a graduate of Fordham University in New York City with a degree in communications and creative writing. She spent much of her professional career in public relations. In her work as a writer, Allison has created plays, and written short fiction, feature articles, and essays on the people, places and events in her adopted home of Columbia County, NY where she has lived for 30 years. Allison says she has always been a writer at heart and has history in her genes. Her family on her father’s side has kept meticulous records of the family dating back to the early 1600s in Anjou, France. Her idea of writing local histories blossomed when she and her husband purchased a historic 1740s colonial home in the hamlet of Malden Bridge, NY. They have lived there for many yeas with their two cats and possibly several other previous inhabitants. The Hidden History of Columbia County, NY, is Allison’s first history book. She follows up with her newest local history book, Hudson Valley Curiosities which contains some of the region’s most suspenseful stories and features some of the most infamous people to step foot in the region.

3 Fun Facts

1. I love history and reading.
2. I ride horses
3. I have a metal detector

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