Dear America Books

Kathryn Lasky is the Newbery Honor-winning author of over 100 books for children and young adults. Her beloved Guardians of Ga’Hoole fantasy series has more than seven million copies in print, and she is the author of the Daughters of the Sea series and the Wolves of the Beyond series, as well as A Time for Courage and other Dear America titles. Kathryn has also written a number of critically acclaimed historical fiction titles, such as Beyond the Burning Time and True North. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kristiana Gregory is the bestselling author of many Dear America titles, including THE WINTER OF RED SNOW and its follow-up, CANNONS AT DAWN; ACROSS THE WIDE AND LONESOME PRAIRIE; and SEEDS OF HOPE. She has also written the Cabin Creek Mysteries, which are based on bedtime stories she told her sons when they were young and restless. Kristiana lives in Boise, Idaho. Visit her online at www.kgregorybooks.com.

Joyce Hansen is the author of several books for children and young adults, receiving the Coretta Scott King Honor on four occasions. Her books include “I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly,” “ One True Friend,” and “Home Boy.”””She presently lives in South Carolina with her husband writing full-time. Visit her website at http: //www.joycehansen.com/index.htm E.B. Lewis is the acclaimed illustrator of many award-winning picture books, including the 2005 Caldecott Honor Book, “Coming on Home Soon.” He has won four Coretta Scott King Illustrator awards for his work on books such as “Talking About Bessie,” by Nikki Grimes and “Verivie Goes to School With Us Boys.” Mr. Lewis teaches illustration at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, and is a member of the Society of Illustrators. He lives in Folsom, New Jersey. Visit his website at http: //www.eblewis.com/illustration/eblewis.html

Whether she’s writing comedy, adventure, or poignant, powerful drama–from Attaboy, Sam! and Anastasia Krupnik to Number the Stars and The Giver–Lois Lowry’s appeal is as broad as her subject matter and as deep as her desire to affect an eager generation of readers. An author who is “fast becoming the Beverly Cleary for the upper middle grades” (The Horn Book Magazine), Lois Lowry has written more than 20 books for young adults and is a two-time Newbery Medal winner.Lowry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and attended junior high school in Tokyo, Japan. Her father was a dentist for the U.S. Army and his job entailed a lot of traveling. She still likes to travel.At the age of 17, Lowry attended Brown University and majored in writing. She left school at 19, got married, and had four children before her 25th birthday. After some time, she returned to college and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine.Lowry didn’t start writing professionally until she was in her mid-30s. Now she spends time writing every single day. Before she begins a book, she usually knows the beginning and end of her story. When she’s not writing, Lowry enjoys gardening during the spring and summer and knitting during the winter. One of her other hobbies is photography, and her own photos grace the covers of Number the Stars, The Giver, and Gathering Blue. Lois Lowry has four children and two grandchildren. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Andrea Davis Pinkney says, “As an African American child growing up in the 1960s, at a time when I didn’t see others like me in children’s books, the expressiveness of Keats’s illustrations had a profound effect.”