83 articles
A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander Milne, 1882–1956), English playwright, Punch humorist, and author of Winnie-the-Pooh, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six, and The House at Pooh Corner, plus The Red House Mystery and Peace with Honour.
Ana Maria Machado
Ana Maria Machado, born 1941 in Rio de Janeiro, is a Brazilian writer of children's books, novels, and essays who won the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Annie M. G. Schmidt
Annie M. G. Schmidt (1911–1995) was a Dutch writer of children's books, poems, songs, and musicals who created Jip en Janneke and won the 1988 Hans Christian Andersen Prize.
Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002), Swedish children's author, creator of Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump), Emil i Lönneberga, and Ronia the Robber's Daughter; 34 chapter books and 41 picture books, translated into over 100 languages, head of children's fiction at Rabén & Sjögren 1946–1970.
Barbara Park
Barbara Lynne Park (1947-2013), American children's author, creator of the Junie B. Jones series begun in 1992; also wrote Skinnybones and Mick Harte Was Here; over 50 books.
Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), American children's author of Henry Huggins and the Ramona Quimby series set on Portland's Klickitat Street; winner of the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw and the 1975 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.
Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques (1939-2011), English author of the Redwall children's fantasy series set at Redwall Abbey; former Liverpool truck driver whose vivid prose began as stories for blind schoolchildren.
Cecil Bødker
Cecil Bødker (1927–2020) was a Danish author best known for the 14-volume Silas series about an orphan boy, begun with Silas og den sorte hoppe in 1967.
Cressida Cowell
Cressida Cowell (born 1966, London) is a British children's author and illustrator, creator of How to Train Your Dragon (11 million books, 38 languages, DreamWorks films) and The Wizards of Once; Waterstones Children's Laureate 2019–2022 and literacy campaigner.
Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler, pen name Lemony Snicket, American author of the 13-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, seven adult novels including The Basic Eight, and Poison for Breakfast; 70 million copies sold, San Francisco.
Dav Pilkey
Dav Pilkey (born 1966) is an American children's author-illustrator, creator of Captain Underpants (1997, 90M+ copies) and Dog Man (2016, 60M+ copies), a 1997 Caldecott Honor winner for The Paperboy whose dyslexia and ADHD shaped his career.
Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) was an English fantasy writer for children and young adults whose Howl's Moving Castle became a 2004 Hayao Miyazaki animated film.
E. B. White
E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White, 1899-1985), American essayist and children's author of Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan; New Yorker writer and reviser of Strunk's Elements of Style; special Pulitzer 1978; died at his Maine farm.
E. Nesbit
E. Nesbit (Edith Nesbit Bland, 1858–1924), English author of The Railway Children, Five Children and It, and the Bastable books; Fabian socialist who modernized children's fantasy.
Edward Stratemeyer
Edward Stratemeyer (1862–1930), American author and publisher, founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate book-packaging firm in 1905, creator of the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew series written by paid ghostwriters under house pseudonyms.
Ellen Niit
Ellen Niit (born Ellen Hiob, 1928–2016) was an Estonian children's writer, poet, and translator who published more than 40 children's books and was the wife of Jaan Kross.
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton (1897–1968), English children's author of the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Noddy, and Malory Towers; wrote an estimated 700 books, selling over 600 million copies in 40 languages, while attracting persistent criticism for sexism, racism, and xenophobia in her texts.
Eoin Colfer
Eoin Colfer (born 1965, Wexford, Ireland) is an Irish children's and adult author, creator of the 25-million-selling Artemis Fowl series, Fowl Twins trilogy, Highfire, and Ireland's third Laureate na nÓg (2014–2016).
Erich Kästner
Erich Kästner (1899–1974) was a German writer, poet, and satirist whose Emil und die Detektive (1929) founded the realistic children's novel in German; his books were burned by the Nazis in 1933.
Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter is the collective pseudonym used by a team of up to nine writers and editors, created by Victoria Holmes for the Warriors series of feral cat books.
Fatou Keïta
Fatou Keïta is an Ivorian academic and writer who teaches English literature in Abidjan and is best known for her children's books and the novel Rebelle (1998), on female genital cutting.
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (1695?-1755), French novelist and fairy-tale writer, wife of J.-B. de Gaillon de Villeneuve; wrote the original 1740 La Belle et la Bête in La Jeune Américaine, et les contes marins, later abridged by Beaumont.
Gordon Korman
Gordon Richard Korman (born 1963) is a Canadian-born author of over 100 children's and young-adult novels. His first book, This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall, was written in 7th grade and published by Scholastic in 1978; his 100th, The Fort, appeared in 2022.
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen (H.C. Andersen), Danish author 1805-1875, born in Odense; literary fairy-tale writer whose tales, including The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, are translated into over 160 languages, distinct from the physicist Hans C. Andersen.
Hemendra Kumar Roy
Hemendra Kumar Roy (হেমেন্দ্রকুমার রায়), born Prasaddas Ray (1888–1963), was a Bengali writer from Calcutta who pioneered children's adventure, detective, and science fiction, creating Jayanta-Manik and Bimal-Kumar and the classic Jokher Dhan.
Horatio Alger
Horatio Alger Jr. (1832–1899) was an American author of about 100 juvenile novels, best known for "rags-to-riches" stories in which poor but honest boys rise through hard work and luck.
Houshang Moradi Kermani
Houshang Moradi Kermani (هوشنگ مرادی کرمانی), born 1944 in Sirch near Kerman, is an Iranian writer of children's and young adult literature best known for the Tales of Majid.
Hugh Lofting
Hugh Lofting (1886-1947), British-born engineer turned author, created Doctor Dolittle in 1920 from letters written to his children from World War I trenches; his Voyages of Doctor Dolittle won a Newbery Medal.
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938) was a Croatian children's writer known as the "Croatian Andersen," whose Priče iz davnine drew on Slavic mythology; she was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize.
J. K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling (Joanne Rowling, born 1965) is the British author of the seven-book Harry Potter series (1997–2007, over 600 million copies), the Robert Galbraith Strike crime novels, and founder of the charity Lumos.