25 Famous Children’s Authors your Kids will Love

Mo Willems. Photo by Alvintrusty. Wikimedia Commons

25 Famous Children’s Authors your Kids will Love

Magic happens when a child opens a book for the first time. Children’s books open doors to delight, knowledge, engagement, and empathy.

They not only dare young readers to imagine wondrous lands through wardrobes or magic beneath our noses; they also challenge children to imagine the lives of people who are different from themselves, making learning about the world feel less like education and more like an adventure.

One of the best and most effective ways to instil a deep love of reading in your child is to give them a great read that you genuinely enjoy.

After graduating from fairy tales and picture books, young readers can progress to classic chapter books and novels.

A great book can truly transform a child’s life. So, without further ado, here is our list of the best children’s authors of all time:

1. Judy Blume

Judith Blume is a children’s, young adult, and adult fiction author from the United States. Blume began writing in 1959 and has published over 25 novels to date. Among her best known works include:

• Are You There, God?
• It’s Me, Margaret (1970),
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972)

She writes with great care and humour about emotions and difficult topics for people of all ages. And, despite the fact that she began writing over 60 years ago, her stories remain relevant and timeless.

Judy Blume explained everything, from annoying little brothers to friends moving away to getting your period, and made so many strange or embarrassing things feel normal.

2. Eric Carle

Eric Carle, who is 89 years old, has written and illustrated well over 50 books for children. His distinct illustration style incorporates collage made from hand painted papers. As a result, the images are bright and colourful, and the characters appear to be full of energy.

For the past six decades, he has been a beloved and bestselling author of picture books by combining these beloved characters with simple phrasing that is often easy for young children to memorize. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, and What do you notice, are some of his best-known works. 

3. Yangsook Choi

This South Korean-born writer and illustrator now divides her time between New York and Seoul. This multinational life is reflected in her books, which range from the story of a girl new to America who is worried about how her classmates will pronounce her name to the blending of Korean street dancing traditions with American Halloween.

Her books are all illustrated with a combination of soft, dreamy colours and strong graphic images. The Name Jar and Peach Heaven were written by Yangsook Choi.

4. Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Beverly Atlee Cleary was a children’s and young adult fiction author from the United States. Since her first book was published in 1950, she has sold 91 million copies worldwide, making her one of America’s most successful authors.

Her most well-known characters include Ramona and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse.  Beverly Cleary is funny, awkward, and incredibly relatable. She didn’t, however, only write about Ramona. Cleary wrote over thirty books for children, including a few YA titles and a novelization of the television show “Leave It to Beaver.”  She died at the age of 104 years.

5. Christopher Paul Curtis

Christopher Paul Curtis has been writing award-winning novels for young people about the history of African Americans since 1995. His novels frequently take place in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

His characters, however, are what make his books so popular and well-read. Not only that, but his understanding of children’s brains, personalities, and family dynamics allows him to create highly specific characters.

His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, was published in 1995 and earned him immediate national acclaim, earning him the Coretta Scott King Honour Book Award and the Newbery Honour Book Award, among other honors.

He became the first person to receive both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his second novel, Bud, Not Buddy, in 2000. He was the first African-American man to receive the Newbery Medal. In 2013, his novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was adapted into a television film.

6. Roald Dahl

Portrait of Roald Dahl. Photo from Van Vechten Collection. Wikimedia Commons

Roald Dahl’s stories are so well known and beloved among my millennial generation, thanks to his 21 books for children and the various adaptations of his work. 

Roald Dahl’s books delight both children and adults with their dark comedy, clever wordplay, and imaginative, unexpected endings. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and The BFG are among his most well-known works.

7. Kate DiCamillo

Author Kate DiCamillo reading at National Book Festival. Photo by Slowking4. Wikimedia Commons

Kate DiCamillo creates elaborate and fully immersive worlds in the pages of her stories, whether they are picture books, chapter books, or novels for children. This is true whether she’s writing about a girl who lives in a Florida trailer, a mouse who lives in a fairytale world, or an adventure-seeking pig.

She is one of the best children’s authors because of the perspective and details she is able to incorporate into every word she writes. Because of, Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux are her most well-known works.

8. Grace Lin

Grace Lin has written and frequently illustrated over 20 children’s books, ranging from picture books to early readers to novels. She writes from the perspective of a Taiwanese American, with topics ranging from growing up Asian American in predominantly white communities to traditional foods like dim sum and moon cakes to fantasy stories based on Chinese folklore.

Lin always tells stories with nuance and emotional resonance, regardless of the subject. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and The Year of the Dog are two of her most well-known works.

9. Arnold Lobel

Arnold Stark Lobel was best known for the Frog and Toad series and Mouse Soup. He wrote and illustrated these picture books, as well as Fables, which won the Caldecott Medal for best-illustrated US picture book in 1981. Lobel also illustrated books by other authors, including Nathaniel Benchley’s Sam the Minuteman, which was published in 1969.

“I cannot think of any work that could be more agreeable and fun than making books for children,” Arnold Lobel once said.

10. Lenore Look

Lenore Look incorporates Chinese and Chinese American culture into her hilarious children’s books. She is the author of numerous picture books as well as two early chapter book series for children who are just learning to read.

Her characters frequently face a variety of challenges, some related to their heritage, such as visiting relatives in another country and disliking the food, and others that are almost universal, such as being afraid to learn to swim.

Ruby Lu, Brave and True, and The Alvin Ho Series are among her most well-known works.

11. Andrea Davis Pinkney

Andrea Davis Pinkney. Photo by Frypie. Wikimedia Commons

Pinkney has penned numerous award-winning picture books, novels, nonfiction, and historical fiction for children. Her reading list reads like a record of contemporary and historical African American experiences, from slavery to Black entertainers to an Obama biography.

She frequently works with her husband, illustrator and writer Brian Pinkney, to bring these stories to life and ensure that these important people are remembered.

The Red Pencil and Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down are her most well-known works.

12. Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney. Photo by Larry D. Moore. Wikimedia Commons

Jerry Pinkney has worked as an illustrator for over 60 years and has created over 75 books for children. He frequently illustrates for a writer, most often the legendary Julius Lester or his wife Gloria Pinkney.

However, some of his best books are solo projects in which he lets his pictures tell the story and leaves out all words. He is most known for The Lion and the Mouse.

13. Adam Rubin and Daniel Salieri

Adam Rubin and Daniel Salieri are the creators of some of the best contemporary classic picture books available. Their books have a very modern feel to them, whether they feature dragons eating too spicy salsa or raccoons plotting their own secret pizza parties.

Most importantly, children adore these books. Dragon’s Love Tacos is one of their creations.

14. Pam Muñoz Ryan

Ryan is the author of over thirty books for children and teenagers, ranging from picture books to novels. Some of her books are about Latina and multicultural experiences, which reflect her own background. Her characters in these stories frequently face adversity and struggle, but their efforts are rewarded. Others include silly animal stories with rhymes, such as her Tony Baloney the macaroni penguin series.

Esperanza Rising is her most well-known work.

15. Dan Santat

Author Dan Santat at the 2018 Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas. Photo by Larry D. Moore. Wikimedia Commons

As an illustrator and author, Dan Santat brings children’s books to life. He’s illustrated for authors such as Samantha Berger, Aaron Reynolds, Minh Lê, Corey Rosen Schwartz, and others. His solo works, on the other hand, stand out as imaginative, hilarious, and almost always dealing with anxiety in some form or another. 

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend is what he is the most known for. 

16. Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak. Photo by Clarence Patch. Wikimedia Commons

“You can’t write for children,” Maurice Sendak once said. “They’re much too complicated. You can only write books that they are interested in.” This regard for children’s intelligence and autonomy is evident in his strange, slightly dark stories and illustrations.

It’s difficult to imagine a more iconic and emotionally resonant picture book character than Max, the boy in a wolf suit who tames the wild things after a fight with his mother. However, Sendak’s other books contain equally twisty and entertaining stories.

Where the Wild Things Are is his most well-known work.

17. Dr. Seuss

Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) half-length portrait. Photo by Al Ravenna. Wikimedia Commons

It’s difficult to think of a list of the greatest children’s authors that doesn’t include Dr. Seuss. Over 60 books for children were written and illustrated by Theodore Seuss Geisel. He created many of the world’s most beloved and best-selling children’s books with a whimsical art style and sing-song rhyming scheme.

The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! are among his most famous works.

18. Noel Streatfeild

In the 1930s and 1940s, Noel Streatfeild wrote the beloved shoes books to depict the lives of child entertainers. Ballet Shoes, her first book, was an instant success and helped to establish the trend of ballet and dancing themed books for children, which is still very popular today.

While slightly dated, her stories always had the right balance of charm and mischief, with beloved characters fantasizing about what it would be like to be on stage.

19. Mo Willems

Mo Willems  created the Cartoon Network animated television series Sheep in the Big City, worked on Sesame Street and The Off-Beats, and wrote the popular children’s book series Elephant and Piggie.

He has created series centered on beloved characters that children enjoy reading to themselves and having read to them. Willems knows how to make children laugh and think at the same time with lessons on kindness, friendship, and respect.

20. Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson. Photo by Kalamazoo Public Library. Wikimedia Commons

In everything from picture books to adult novels, Jacqueline Woodson writes prolifically and poetically about the Black experience in America. From poetry to historical fiction to memoir, Woodson expertly enters her characters’ points of view and fills her stories with lyrical descriptions of the worlds they inhabit.

She’s most known for: Brown Girl Dreaming and Each Kindness

21. Bill Martin Jr.

William Ivan Martin Jr. wrote over 300 children’s books, including:

• The Sounds of Mystery,
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (co-written with John Archambault),
• Brown Bear,
• Brown Bear, What Do You See?,
• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?,
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, and
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

22. Yuyi Morales

Yuyi Morales is a Mexican-American children’s book author and illustrator. She is best known for her books Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book, Little Night, and Viva Frida, which won the 2015 Pura Belpre Medal and a Caldecott Honor. Morales is the first Latina to receive the Caldecott Medal. 

23. Barbara Cooney

Barbara Cooney published 110 children’s books over a sixty-year period. She won two Caldecott Medals for Chanticleer and the Fox (1958) and Ox-Cart Man (1979), as well as a National Book Award for Miss Rumphius (1982). Her books have been translated into ten different languages.

Cooney used a variety of techniques throughout her career, preferring pen and ink, acrylic paints, and pastels. Her illustrations are often described as folk art. She illustrated folk tales the majority of the time. Despite the fact that many of her books were in black and white, her “heart and soul were in color.”

24. Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is the best-selling author of over 20 children’s books, including Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole. His picture books, Leo: A Ghost Story and The Skunk, were named Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2015 by The New York Times. Barnett also writes the Brixton Brothers mystery series and The Terrible Two novels with Jory John.

Barnett enjoys his work because children are “the sincerest appreciators of stories, a uniquely receptive and honest audience,” he says.

25. Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen, dubbed “America’s Hans Christian Anderson,” is known for weaving folklore, fantasy, and historical events into enthralling stories for children and young adults. Yolen spent several years as an editor before turning to writing.

At the age of 22, she published her first children’s book, Pirates in Petticoats, which was followed by dozens of other books for young readers. Many of her books retell traditional folktales with powerful goddesses and heroines. Yolen has received numerous honors, including the Caldecott Medal in 1987, the Nebula Award in 1999, and the Sidney Taylor Award in 1988 for The Devil’s Arithmetic, her first Holocaust-related book.

Yolen is a founding member of the Western New England Storytellers Guild and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers.