Authors in Forthcoming Volumes

Below are some of the authors and illustrators that will be featured in upcoming volumes of SATA. These include new entries on the swiftly rising stars of the field, as well as completely revised and updated entries (indicated with *) on some of the most notable and best-loved creators of books for children.

*David Almond ∎ When Almond penned his first YA novel, awards committees took notice. Skellig, which is inspired by the stories and small towns of the author's native England, mixes fantasy and a dash of the supernatural in its story of a boy coping in the midst of a family tragedy. The novel earned its author several prestigious awards, including Whitbread and Carnegie honors, and Almond has continued to impress critics with books such as Kit's Wilderness and The Fire Eaters, which draws readers into the life of a teen growing up under the threat of the cold war.

*Sandra Fenichel Asher ∎ A multi-award-winning playwright, Asher has devoted her career to introducing children to the magic of theatre. While her plays, such as Dancing with Strangers and In the Garden of the Selfish Giant, have been produced throughout the United States, Asher is better known as the author of picture books, middle-grade novels that draw on the author's Jewish cultural heritage, and short-story anthologies such as On Her Way: Stories and Poems about Growing up Girl. In addition to an active teaching career, Asher has devoted much of her time to youth theatre groups.

*Ian Bone ∎ Bone began his career working for the Australian Broadcasting System producing, writing, and directing children's programming for a decade before taking on the role of children's book author. His young-adult novels, such as Fat Boy Saves World and The Song of an Innocent Bystander, have earned him a number of top Aussie awards as well as praise for compelling plots which focus on teens placed in unusual and emotionally challenging situations. Bone has also endeared himself to younger readers with books such as The Virus That Ate Barry and The Yuckiest Wish, and is the author of the "VIDZ" series of middle-grade novels.

Shari Graydon ∎ From government press secretary to journalist to college teacher, Graydon has spent her career working with words. Understanding the power of words to influence decision-making—particularly among style-conscious teens—inspired her to begin a book-writing career. In books such as Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know, Graydon shows readers how to navigate in a sea of hype directed at separating young people from their allowance. She has become a sort of advertising activist in her native Canada, where, in addition to writing newspaper columns and presenting workshops in schools, Graydon has been active in media watch groups.

*Joyce Hansen ∎ Like many authors, Hansen was inspired to begin writing children's books through her work as a teacher. She also draws on her cultural background as an African American, combining it with her interest in the past to pen historical novels as well as highly praised nonfiction that reveals the diverse roles people of color have played throughout history. In African Princesses Hansen spans the centuries in her profile of talented women, while her fascination with the historical record has resulted in books such as Freedom Roads: Searching for the Underground Railway, which show modern archeologist at work revealing mysteries about black America's roots.

Wendy Mass ∎ Synesthesia may not be a household word for most teen readers, but that didn't stop Mass from making the condition—in which senses such as smell and color become neurologically "cross-wired"—the focus of her award-winning novel A Mango-shaped Space. Mass continues to exhibit her own knack for interpreting things in new ways in novels such as Leap Day, in which a variety of perspectives on a teen's eventful sixteenth birthday are interwoven in a compelling story. Coming from a varied career in publishing and film, Mass now alternates fiction with a range of nonfiction titles, and has produced several literature guides.

*Daniel Pinkwater ∎ While Pinkwater's books may be as quirky and eccentric as their author, his many awards attest to the fact that their themes resonate with parents. From The Big Orange Splot, a simple story that conveys a crucial lesson about uniqueness, to the totally for-fun The Wuggie Norple Story and Fat Camp Commandos Go West, Pinkwater often peoples his whimsical world with emboldened underdogs who often mete out a gentle justice. Pinkwater is also known to adults through his radio commentaries, which have been collected in several volumes, and Chicago Days, Hoboken Nights, in which he describes the childhood that has inspired much of his fiction.

*Robert D. San Souci ∎ Folktale reteller par excellence, San Souci has racked up a long list of awards due to his talent for spinning a captivating tale. Stories from around the world provide the fodder for his picture books, which range from Little Gold Star, a Latin fairy tale, to Callie Ann and Mistah Bear, a story with its roots firmly planted in American soil. Whether drawn from Asian, American, European, British, or African folklore, San Souci's many books show young readers that, wherever they live, all people share similar hopes, fears, dreams, and joys.

Geronimo Stilton ∎ Who Geronimo Stilton actually is may be a mystery, but this pseudonymous Italian-born writer has become one of the top-selling children's-book authors in Europe. Mimicking the high adventure, drama, and pathos of old-time movie serials, Stilton's books, which include Too Fond of My Fur and Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!, follow the adventures of a journalist mouse who, when not busy working at the Rodent's Gazette, travels the world in search of adventure, often accompanied by his loyal friends as well as the occasional nemesis.

*Rich Wallace ∎ The world of high-school sports is central to the young-adult fiction penned by Wallace. A former sportwriter who now works in magazine publishing, Wallace writes both novels and short stories, consistently focusing on young male athletes whose competitive nature and single-mindedness sometimes cause problems in their lives off the field, court, or track. In Losing Is Not an Option Wallace follows a teen athlete growing up in a working-class town and hoping for more from life, while his novel Wrestling Sturbridge finds a second stringer attempting to turn his going-nowhere life around by challenging the top athlete on his varsity wrestling team. While family and romantic relationships play important roles, for Wallace's protagonists winning means more than just winning the game; it means winning at life.