Multicultural Children's Authors

NOTE: This page is not being updated as of August 2010. We hope to resume updates once the Education Librarian position is filled.

African-American
Native-American
Latino or Hispanic-American
Arab-American
Jewish-American
Asian Pacific - American

The following children's authors are identified by ethnic origin to assist students searching for the "authentic voice" in multicultural children's literature, i.e. authors raised within the community they describe. Links lead to catalog holdings.

African-American Authors

Jaime Adoff	Tina McElroy Ansa	Gwendolyn Brooks
Ashley Bryan	Jeannette Franklin Caines	Alice Childress
Debbi Chocolate	Lucille Clifton	Bryan Collier
Floyd Cooper	Bill Cosby	Donald Crews
Pat Cummings	Christopher Paul Curtis	Ossie Davis
Leo Dillon	Sharon Draper	Paul Laurence Dunbar
Sharon Flake	Valerie Flournoy	Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Nikki Giovanni	Eloise Greenfield	Nikki Grimes
Virginia Hamilton	Joyce Hansen	Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
Langston Hughes	Angela Johnson	Dolores Johnson
June Jordan	Kristin Hunter Lattany	Julius Lester
Lessie Jones Little	Sharon Bell Mathis	Dindga McCannon
Janet McDonald	Patricia McKissack	Angela Shelf Medearis
Phil Mendez	Jess Mowry	Walter Dean Myers
Kadir Nelson
Andrea Davis Pinkney	Brian Pinkney	Gloria Jean Pinkney
Jerry Pinkney	Connie Porter	Ray Prather
James E. Ransome	Faith Ringgold	Harriette Robinet
Dori Sanders	Ntozake Shange	John Shearer
John Steptoe	Mildred Taylor	Ianthe Thomas
Joyce Carol Thomas	Mildred Pitts Walter	Valerie Wesley
Brenda Wilkinson	Sherley Williams	Rita Williams-Garcia
Jacqueline Woodson	Sharon Wyeth
Javaka Steptoe

Arab-American Authors

Naomi Shibab Nye	Daniella Carmi	Suhaib Ghazi

Asian Pacific-American Authors

Haemi Balgassi	Cynthia Chin-Lee	Karen Chinn
Shirin Yim Bridges
Sook Myul Choi	Yangsook Choi	Anita Ganeri
Sheila Hamanaka	Keiko Kasza	Marie G. Lee
Paul Lee	Grace Lin	Bette Bao Lord
Lenore Look	Milly Lee
Ai-Ling Louie	Toshi Maruki	Ken Mochizuki
Kyoko Mori	Dhan Gopal Mukerji	An Na
Lensey Namioka	Jean Davies Okimoto	Frances Park
Linda Sue Park	Lowry Pei	Jama Kim Rattigan
Allen Say	Amy Tan	Yoshiko Uchida
Taro Yashima	Laurence Yep	Janet Wong
Ed Young	Belle Yang	Paul Yee

Jewish-American Authors

Chris Van Allsburg	Judy Blume	H. and Margaret Rey
Louis Sachar	Maurice Sendak	Shel Silverstein
Isaac Bashevis Singer	Arnold Adoff

Latino or Hispanic-American Authors

Alma Flor Ada	Francisco Alarcon	Julia Alvarez
Gloria Anzaldua	Rudolfo Anaya	George Ancona
Pura Belpre	T. Ernesto Bethancourt	Alberto Blanco
Eve Bunting	Fran Leeper Buss	Sandra Cisneros
Lulu Delacre	Richard Garcia	Carmen Lomas Garza
Lucia Gonzalez	Juan Felipe Herrera	Juan Ramon Jimenez
Cruz Martel	Victor Martinez	Nicholasa Mohr
Francisco Mora	Pat Mora	Yuyi Morales
Pam Munoz Ryan	Simon Silva	Gary Soto
Leyla Torres

Native American Authors

Shonto Begay	Joseph Bruchac	Michael Dorris
Charles A. Eastman	Louise Erdrich	Janet Campbell Hale
Jamake Highwater	N. Scott Momaday	Cynthis Leitich Smith
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve	Virginia A. Stroud

The ethnic origin of authors is only one factor in the evaluation of authentic multicultural children's literature--other factors would include the accuracy and validity of the text and the illustrations. For more information, read Multicultural Children's Literature: Creating and Applying an Evaluation Tool in Response to the Needs of Urban Educators by Jennifer Johnson Higgins.

The list is not complete, but representative. All authors currently have at least one work in the Instructional Materials Center @ Bailey Library, Slippery Rock University. Links lead to catalog holdings. Suggestions are welcome.