Category Archive: Author Voices

Q&A with Marissa Meyer: Celebrating 10 Years of Cinder

Posted in: Author Voices

Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles, Heartless, The Renegades Trilogy, and Instant Karma, as well as the graphic novel duology Wires and Nerve. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and a MA in Publishing from Pace University. In... Read more

How Books Shape Our Dialogue Around Diversity & Race

Posted in: Author Voices

In 2021, the Children’s Cooperative Book Center reviewed 3,357 books and found that only 9.3% were written by Black authors and 13.3% featured Black characters. While the statistics are staggering, the problem with the lack of diversity in books extends beyond any bookshelf as the books we read and learn... Read more

Meet Cece Bell – First Book Friend, Author & AppleTV Superstar

Posted in: Author Voices

On January 7, the First Book family celebrated the El Deafo premiere on AppleTV, written and illustrated by long-time friend, donor, and author Cece Bell. Truly a wonderful human being and supporter of First Book, Cece and her husband Tom Angleberger, have always been generous when it comes to the... Read more

Making Tamales with Author, Jennifer Torres

Posted in: Author Voices

Guest blog post written by Jennifer Torres, an award-winning author who writes stories about home, friendship, and unexpected courage inspired by her Mexican-American heritage. One of my favorite parts of the school and library presentations I get to give comes when I click on a slide showing a big bowl of... Read more

Celebrating the Written Word with Ruth Chan

Posted in: Author Voices

Ruth Chan is the author and illustrator of many books for young children, several of which are featured on First Book’s Marketplace. We sat down to chat with Ruth, a First Book favorite author, to learn more about what inspires her characters, how she develops ideas, and what message of... Read more

Classroom Discussions: The 9/11 Aftermath for People of Color

Posted in: Author Voices

Guest blog post written by Saadia Faruqi, a Pakistani American author, essayist, and interfaith activist. She writes the children’s early reader series “Yasmin” and other books for children. It’s been 20 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It’s an important event in our history books, one that we... Read more

Celebrating Mo and Cher Willems

Posted in: Author Voices

Every May, the First Book family celebrates the Month of Mo and all the amazing stories that Mo Willems has brought to our network educators and their students. We celebrate with giveaways, Marketplace credits for teachers to stock their bookshelves, and by rereading our favorite Elephant & Piggie adventures. As... Read more

Pat Mora on Bookjoy

Posted in: Author Voices

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Children’s Day, Book Day on April 30 — the kickoff of a year-long commitment to celebrate reading! First Book is excited to celebrate with author, Pat Mora, to share bookjoy and to help motivate children to read throughout the year. We connected with... Read more

Five Questions with Hena Khan

Posted in: Author Voices, Our Bookshelf

Happy book birthday to Hena Khan’s new book Amina’s Song, published today (March 9, 2021)! This past January, as a part of our activities for National Day of Service, Khan did a live reading of Amina’s Song – a companion book to Amina’s Voice – and through Khan’s participation and... Read more

“I Remember Meeting John Lewis Like It Was This Morning.”

Posted in: Author Voices

This blog post was written by guest blogger, Kyle Zimmer, president, CEO, and co-founder of First Book. Dear First Book Community: Over the course of my life, I have been fortunate enough to meet talented, famous people from time to time.  Best-selling authors, musicians, and, as a long-time Washingtonian, many... Read more