Wait…They Write Books for Kids?

By Bernice Oliver, Assistant Branch Librarian, Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch

Have you ever been browsing the picture books and suddenly an author’s name jumps out at you and makes you say, “Wait...I didn’t know they wrote books for kids!”?

The other day I found a picture book I’d never seen before... a version of Hansel and Gretel. The illustrator was a familiar one, Maurice Sendak, but the author’s name made me do a double take. Stephen King?!?! What’s the “King of Horror” (IT, Pet Cemetery, Fairy Tale) doing in the picture books? (Although, on second thought, the story of Hansel and Gretel does kind of lend itself to the horror genre.)

Then I thought to myself, how many other “adult” authors could I find in the picture books? Turns out, quite a few. Here are some of my favorites.

Maybe you’ve read some of Anne Patchett’s books (Tom Lake, The Dutch House). Well, now you can introduce her thoughtful character development to the kids in Escape Goat, Lambslide or The Verts, all illustrated by Robyn Preiss-Glasser (illustrator of the Fancy Nancy series).

I was first introduced to the work of Jaqueline Woodson when my daughter was reading Brown Girl Dreaming in middle school. I learned later that she also wrote books for young children (The Day You Begin, The Year We Learned to Fly), teens (If You Come Softly, Miracle’s Boy) and adults (Red at the Bone, Another Brooklyn). Do you love a good James Patterson thriller? Kids like a good thrill, too. For the littles try Fox is Coming or Give Thank You a Try. Middle schoolers will love the Dog Diaries, Treasure Hunters or the Middle School Series (the worst years of most of our lives.) And the teens will be captivated by the Maximum Ride or Witch and Wizard series.

This list could not be complete without including Stacey Abrams: politician, lawyer, activist and author. Is there anything she cannot do? Probably not, and there is no one she has not written a book for either. From board books (Baby’s First Love Story) to picture books (Stacey Speaks Up, Stacey’s Extraordinary Words, Stacey’s Remarkable Books) to adult romance (The Art of Desire, Never Tell) and adult thrillers (While Justice Sleeps, first in the Avery Keene series). She has written nonfiction books (Our Time is Now, Minority Leader), and don’t forget to check out the biography section to see what other writers have written about Stacey and her important voting rights advocacy work.

The list is longer (Neil Gaiman, Dolly Parton...), but this post is getting pretty long, too. So, I’ll leave you with one of my all-time favorite children’s books, The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak. Yep, that BJ Novak, from the TV show, The Office. It’s hilarious. Find it and read it to a kid. You will not be sorry.