Local-ish Authors: Children's

I live in Dedham, Massachusetts as does my brother Paul and his family. Dedham is famous for having the first publicly-supported, tax-funded school in the U.S. in 1644!

I have a son Henry Rocket, and a daughter Sarah who helped me become “GrandDude” to two beautiful grandchildren Thomas and Hazel (named after my mother).

My days revolve around working on my book projects, keynotiung conferences, school visits, podcasts, online talks, making, and sipping coffee at my indie bookshop Blue Bunny Bookstore and espresso bar in our historic downtown of Dedham Square.

I am actively involved in civic projects in the town, and do what I can to ensure Dedham is a wonderful place to live and visit. As part of that mission, I founded the Dedham Square Circle - which works to help make Dedham an irresistibly wonderful place for generations of residents and visitors in the decades to come!

Grace Lin grew up in Upstate New York with her parents and two sisters. While the other sisters became scientists, Grace became an artist. Surprisingly enough, being an artist was not Grace’s first choice. She first dreamed of being a champion ice skater, and drew many pictures of herself twirling and dancing on the ice. Unfortunately, Grace had neither the talent nor coordination to make it to skating stardom. However, the pictures she drew of herself held much promise and quickly became Grace’s career focus.

After attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Grace quickly set out to achieve her dream of creating children’s books. Her first book, THE UGLY VEGETABLES, was published in 1999 and was quickly heralded. Grace now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her husband, daughter and a fluctuating amount of chickens. 

Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into 66 languages and sold over 50 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 152 million copies of his books have sold around the world.

In 2002, Eric and his late wife Bobbie founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. Eric’s work has been widely recognized in the world of children’s literature, and has won many awards. Some works, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, have even been translated into many different languages and are enjoyed by children around the world. If you are interested in more complete biography of Eric, we recommend the autobiography section of The Art of Eric Carle published by Philomel Books.

With more than 42 million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation’s foremost illustrators of children’s books.  As a child, she decided to be an illustrator and spent much of her time reading and drawing. As a student at the Boston Museum School, Jan spent many hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. Travel is also a constant inspiration, so with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney didn’t grow up wanting to be a children’s author. His dream was to become a newspaper cartoonist but he wasn’t able to get his comic strip syndicated.

In 2006, Jeff signed a multi-book deal with publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a print series. The first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007 and became an instant bestseller. Just a year later, more than 100,000 copies were in print in the United States alone. With each subsequent book, in-print numbers continue to grow exponentially both in the U.S. and abroad. There are now more than 300 million copies of the series in print worldwide.

Jeff is the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.

Patricia MacLachlan (1938–2022) was the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels, Skylark and Caleb’s Story; Edward’s Eyes; The True Gift; Waiting for the Magic; White Fur Flying; Fly Away; and Snow Horses. She lived in western Massachusetts.

MacLachlan was born Patricia Pritzkau on March 3, 1938, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 1962, she married Robert MacLachlan and began working as a junior high school English teacher. Her first published book, The Sick Day, came out in 1979. Through Grandpa’s Eyes and Moon, Stars, Frogs, and Friends followed in 1980.

MacLachlan’s fiction tends to be realistic, with a notable exception being the fantasy book Tomorrow’s Wizard (1982). Among MacLachlan’s other books from the early 21st century are Edward’s Eyes (2007), which deals with the sudden death of a young boy whose family donates his organs, and Waiting for the Magic (2011), which relates how pets help heal a broken family. Books that MacLachlan wrote with her daughter include Painting the Wind (2003), Once I Ate a Pie (2006), and Fiona Loves the Night (2007). MacLachlan also conducted creative writing workshops for both children and adults and served as a visiting lecturer at Smith College in Massachusetts. She was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2002. MacLachlan died on March 31, 2022, in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.