Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Emily Gravett
British author and illustrator Emily Gravett brings a fresh perspective to her children's books. Orange Pear Apple Bear is a funny, charming, completely engaging picture book - and it uses all of five words to tell its story. Gravett has...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Denise Fleming
As a young girl, Denise Fleming spent many hours in her father's workshop cutting, gluing, carving, and building things. Today she spends those hours in her own workshop making the paper that she uses to illustrate her picture books. Her...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Erin Entrada Kelly
Erin Entrada Kelly writes books for tweens and teens that explore coming of age with sensitivity and honesty, dealing with issues such as bullying, building friendships, and feeling like an outsider. In this interview, Erin talks about...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Eric Rohmann
Eric Rohmann believes that each story needs illustrations that match its tone, content, and sensibility. As a children's book illustrator, this means knowing how and when to use different media and techniques, such as oil paints, wood...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Erica S. Perl
Erica S. Perl is the author of the wonderfully silly picture books about Chicken Butt. Perl's other titles for young readers include Dotty, a gentle story about school days and imaginary friend,s and Ninety-Three in My Family, a lively...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: E. B. Lewis
As a children's illustrator, E.B. Lewis has contributed beautiful watercolors to The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz, Down the Road by Alice Schertle, and many other titles. Lewis's illustrations have...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Francisco Alarcon
Francisco X. Alarcon wrote poetry for both children and adults. Born in Los Angeles, California, he cspent time as a child in both Mexico and the United States. Alarcon's poetry was inspired by songs he heard from his grandmother, which...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Lulu Delacre
Lulu Delacre has been writing and illustrating children's books for almost thirty years. Her Latino heritage and her wide-ranging life experiences inform her books. In this interview, Lulu talks about her experiences growing up in Puerto...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Lynne Rae Perkins
Lynne Rae Perkins writes and illustrates picture books for young children and novels for middle and high school kids. Her stories explore family, friendships, and the many small but meaningful moments that shape childhood and...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Linda Sue Park
Linda Sue Park is the Newbery Award-winning author of A Single Shard. In this video interview, she compares writing to sports, questions animal sounds among different countries, and says that young writers need to practice writing. Watch...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Lin Oliver
Lin Oliver told stories even as a child, revealing all her family secrets to her neighbors. With Henry Winkler, Oliver is the co-author of the popular Hank Zipzer series about a young boy with learning differences who is funny,...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry has written more than 30 books for children and young adults in genres ranging from contemporary fiction to historical fiction to fantasy to autobiographical. Some of Lowry's books are light-hearted, but others deal with...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is a compelling writer who plays with form and style to present individuals from the inside. Her playful side emerges when she looks at real history and women who played a role in it. Anderson also has a particular...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Lane Smith
Lane Smith describes his artwork as a mixture between his fine arts background and low-brow influences like Monty Python and Mad magazine. He has tried making sweet and cute children's books, but they always take a turn toward the edgy...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Laura Vaccaro Seeger writes and illustrates children's books that seem disarmingly simple at first but reveal complex ideas with every reading. She tackles big themes like friendship and creativity, and uses her design and animation...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Kelly Barnhill
Kelly Barnhill is the author of fantasy novels for children, including The Girl Who Drank the Moon, winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal. In this interview, Barnhill talks about listening to stories out loud, the importance of magic, her...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Katherine Applegate
Katherine Applegate is the author of many books for young readers. In this interview, Applegate talks about life-changing books for reluctant readers (including kids with dyslexia), writing "first-person gorilla", tackling tough topics,...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander, an award-winning poet and author, writes picture books for children and cross-genre books for teens. The Crossover - his basketball-concrete poetry-hiphop mashup - was awarded the 2015 Newbery Medal. Alexander is also...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Kathleen Krull
Did you know that Beethoven's favorite food was macaroni and cheese? Or that John F. Kennedy used to bark like a seal before giving important speeches? Kathleen Krull's biographies for young readers are full of such facts. Through solid...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Greg Tang
Greg Tang wants to improve the quality of math education in the United States. Each year he travels the country, giving workshops and presentations for teachers and students. He has a background in economics, business, and math...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Gennifer Choldenko
Gennifer Choldenko's books are funny and warm. She's got a real gift for capturing the authentic voices of tweens and teens as they negotiate their families, friends, and growing up. Her books for younger children feature kids - and...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: George Ancona
In 2002, George Ancona received the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for work that "has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children." In this video interview, George Ancona talks about his...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Grace Lin
Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than 20 books - from picture books to young adult novels - for kids. Most of Lin's books are about the Asian-American experience. She believes that "books erase bias, they make the uncommon...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson is the Newbery Medal-winning author of Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge to Terabithia. In this interview, she talks about her childhood, raising a family, the challenges and joy of writing historical fiction, the...