March is National Reading Month. What better way to celebrate than to support children’s book authors who are Alabama natives? Many of these Alabama children’s book authors’ works can be found in our local libraries, in a bookstore near you, or online.
Mary Anne Freeman
Mary Anne Freeman is a Vestavia Hills native who wrote a sweet book about her dachshund, Oliver, who needed a pet wheelchair after an injury.
Let’s Roll, Oliver
Charles Ghighna
Charles Ghigna, known as “Father Goose,” has written over 5,000 children’s poems and over 100 children’s books. He is a Pulitzer Prize nominee. His poems can be found in Highlights Magazine, Ranger Rick, Children’s Digest, and many other children’s magazines. A few of his books include:
Father Goose Treasury of Poetry: 101 Favorite Poems for Children
Returning to Earth
Love is Everything
Bound To Dream: An Immigrant Story
Recycling is Fun
Stop, Drop, and Roll (Fire Safety)
One Hundred Shoes
Barn Storm
Oh My, Pumpkin Pie!
Strange Unusual Gross Cool Animals
Faye Gibbons
Faye Gibbons writes children’s and young adult books about life in the South. Some of her books include:
Full Steam Ahead
Some Glad Morning
Mama and Me and the Model T
Emma Jo’s Song
Night in the Barn
Halley (Young Adult: YA)
King Shoes and Clown Pockets (YA)
Hook Moon Night: Spooky Tales from Georgia (YA)
Dr. Linda Holloway
Dr. Linda Holloway is a college professor and retired Colonel who is passionate about empowering and educating through her writing. She has written:
I Love My Happy Hair
Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Diversity
Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Sickle Cell Disease
Little Miss Linda Speaks Out About Death
Little Miss Linda Speaks Copes with Divorce
Little Miss Linda Speaks About Rape
Little Miss Linda Goes to Counseling
Little Miss Linda: B.A.D. Girls of Montgomery
Angela Johnson
Angela Johnson has received three Coretta Scott King Awards. She has also been recognized for many other honors, including an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Her books often refer to Alabama and Alabama history and include:
When I am Old With You
A Sweet Smell of Roses
Just Like Josh Gibson
Lottie Paris Lives Here
Lottie Paris and the Best Place
Lily Brown’s Paintings
Daddy Calls Me Man
Heaven (YA)
Toning the Sweep (YA)
The First Part Last (YA)
Jo Kittinger
Jo Kittinger has earned a Christopher Award and the Social Justice Literature Award from the International Reading Association. She writes on a variety of topics and reading levels in books such as:
The House on Dirty-Third Street
Rosa’s Bus
When I Grow Up
A Lunch With Punch
Going To the Beach
A Breath of Hope
Helping a Hero
Irene Latham
Irene Lathem is a writer of children’s poetry who has been honored with a 2021 Caldecott Medal, Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and the 2016 ILA Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award. Her writing includes:
Can I touch your hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
The Cat Man of Aleppo
Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes A to Z
Be a Bridge
The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems
This Poem Is A Nest
Meet Miss Fancy
12 Days of Kindness
African Town (YA)
Leaving Gee’s Bend (YA)
Lori Nichols
Lori Nichols is an author and illustrator who was honored as the Alabama Library Association’s 2015 “Alabama Author.” Her book Maple was awarded “Best Children’s Books of 2014” by Amazon and received a 2014 Giverny Award for “Best Children’s Science Picture Book.” Maple was also selected to represent the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Maple and Maple and Willow Together were named “2015 Best Children’s Books of the Year.”
Maple
Maple and Willow Together
Maple and Willow Apart
Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree
The Light in Me Sees the Light in You
Go Sleep In Your Own Bed
Ben Okon
If your children like to learn the “how” and “why” of things, they will love Ben Okon. He writes about topics such as finances and the scientific method in ways that children can easily grasp.
Dinos Love Donuts
Matt the Monkey Faces His Future
Joelle the Whale Shark Grew and Grew
Judah the Giraffe is Happy to be Wrong
Nora and Cora Narwhal Prove Whales Can Fly
Oliver Octopus
Emmett and Averie Elephant and the Secret to Happiness
Owen and Lou Otter Help Each Otter
Kate Koala and Austin Alpaca Faces the Impossible Task
Randi Pink
Randi Pink writes novels for young adults and has been honored with the School Library Journal Best Book of 2019 and Alabama Library Association Award in 2022. She has written:
Angel of Greenwood (YA)
Under the Heron’s Light (YA)
Girls Like Us (YA)
We Are the Scribes (YA)
Into White (YA)
Elizabeth Shannon
Elizabeth Shannon wrote her first children’s book about her two cats, Smoke and Fire.
Where There’s Smoke…There’s Fire
Alana Smith, MSN, CRNA
Alana Smith is a Nurse Anesthetist who is on a mission to make surgery less scary for young children. Over 500 books have been donated to children’s hospitals and organizations.
Magic Air: Ten Kid-Sized Steps to Surgery
Dr. Deven Tellis
Dr. Deven Tellis is a veteran K-12 foreign language teacher who writes books that focus on positivity and encouragement. She also offers bilingual versions of some of her books. She has written:
Who’s To Say
Always Be the Light
Good News: I Like My Brand New Attitude
Essentially Elliot
Essentially Eliza
Authentically Aaron
Authentically Ava
Goal-Getters Get Things Done
Good Vibes
