Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Meg Medina
Meg Medina is an award-winning Cuban American author who writes picture books, middle grade stories, and young adult fiction. Watch the interview to learn more about her and read a short biography about her life. Includes an interview...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Patricia and Fredrick Mc Kissack
Patricia and Fredrick McKissack are a writing duo that got their start when they decided they wanted to do something about the lack of children's stories about African Americans. In this interview, they talk about finding inspiration for...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Megan Mc Donald
Megan McDonald, the youngest of five sisters, had a stutter as a child, and her mother gave her a notebook to write down what she wanted to say. Many of the anecdotes in her Judy Moody books are based on real incidents - like the time...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Rafael Lopez
Rafael Lopez is an award-winning artist and children's book illustrator. In this interview, Rafael talks about the important role drawing played in his childhood, the influence of his Mexican heritage on his work, and the inspiration...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Seymour Simon
Seymour Simon has written many science books for children. His work has been praised for explaining science in a way that is accurate, interesting, and accessible and has earned him a reputation as a trusted source of information for...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Steven Kellogg
Steven Kellogg has written and/or illustrated more than 100 books over the past half century, including his well-known series about Pinkerton the Great Dane and his tall tales about classic American characters like Pecos Bill, Paul...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Tanya Lee Stone
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...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Sarah Stewart and David Small
Writer Sarah Stewart and artist David Small, married more than 30 years, like to occasionally collaborate on books. Over the years, they've published a number of award-winning picture books, including The Journey, The Library, and the...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Sid Fleischman
Sid Fleischman has written dozens of books for children. It took him more than 10 years to complete his award-winning book, The Whipping Boy. His ideas can spring from anywhere. The 13th Floor, a time travel story, was inspired by the...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Timothy Basil Ering
Timothy Basil Ering may be best known as the illustrator of Kate DiCamillo's book The Tale of Despereaux, but he has also authored several popular children's books including The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone and Necks Out for Adventure -...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Rosalyn Schanzer
Children's author and illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer views history as series of grand adventures full of fascinating people - stories just waiting to be told. And she loves to tell them, bringing real-life characters like George Washington...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Susan Cooper
Susan Cooper's works weave rich language and contemporary issues with fantasy, history, and traditional literature to create compelling, timeless picture books and young adult novels. In this interview, Cooper talks about becoming a...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Sneed Collard
Sneed B. Collard III is the author of more than 30 children's books about science, nature, and the environment. With a background in biology, his book topics range from beaks to wings to cloud forests to animal dads. Collard encourages...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Vicki Cobb
Vicki Cobb has published over 85 books for grades K-8 that explore physics, chemistry and biology, biographies, geography, and the human body. Her new Science Play series targets kids 3-5 years old, who are already natural scientists...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Stephan Pastis
Stephan Pastis is a lawyer-turned-cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, and the author of the Timmy Failure chapter book series for middle school kids. Timmy Failure follows the exploits of the young "defective"...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Sy Montgomery
The Boston Globe once described Sy Montgomery as "part Indiana Jones and part Emily Dickinson" in recognition of her adventurous spirit and passionate voice as a writer. She is a naturalist, devoted conservationist, author, documentary...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Susan Meddaugh
Susan Meddaugh is the author and illustrator of the charming Martha Speaks series as well as other animal-centric stories like Cinderella's Rat and the original fairy tale The Witch's Walking Stick. Her books are loved by kids and their...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Sam Mc Bratney
Sam McBratney has been writing children's books for more than 30 years. His popular book Guess How Much I Love You continues to sell a million copies a year. When his kids were growing up, he told whimsical original bedtime stories every...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Tom Angleberger
Tom Angleberger is the creative mind behind the Origami Yoda series and other delightfully funny stories for kids, all of which he illustrates himself. Angelberger has Aspergers (he calls it his superpower), and many of his stories are...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Wendy Wan Long Shang
Wendy Wan-Long Shang writes stories for the middle grades that look at the experiences of Chinese-Americans with humor, heart, and a sense of history. In this interview, Wendy talks about being the first Chinese-American kid in her...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Tonya Bolden
Tonya Bolden has written more than 20 books for children and young adults, including biographies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and George Washington Carver. Bolden transforms facts into compelling stories that inspire and challenge her...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Bill Martin Jr.
Bill Martin Jr's Brown Bear, Brown Bear book is almost required reading for parents of young children. In video clips from A Visit With Bill Martin Jr (1996), he talks about his "jazzy" writing. Watch the interview to learn more about...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Audrey Wood and Don Wood
Audrey and Don Wood have collaborated on more than 50 children's books. Their internationally known books - including The Napping House, Heckedy Peg, and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub - have been translated into many languages. Both...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Author Interviews: Audrey Geisel
An interview with Audrey Geisel (Mrs. Dr. Seuss) at her San Diego home. In this interview, Audrey Geisel explains how she first met Theodore Geisel, describes their life together, and talks about his classic works. It's a fascinating...