Children’s Books Written by Authors Famous for Writing Adult Fiction

Did you know that suspense writer Dean Koontz wrote poetry for children? Or that Nobel prize winning author Toni Morrison collaborated with her son to create children’s picture books? Increasingly more authors primarily known for their adult works are entering the field of children’s literature and penning picture books, poetry, and young adult novels. Look to see if your favorite author is among the following writers who have recently released a book for children or young adults.

Abrahams, Peter
Down the Rabbit Hole: an Echo Falls Mystery. 2005.
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.
[Education Storage: S. Ab82d]

Alexie, Sherman
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 2007.
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
[Education S Collection: S. AL2752a]

Allende, Isabel
Kingdom of the Golden Dragon. 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his grandmother, a writer for a geography magazine, to the remote Forbidden Kingdom in the Himalayas to help locate a sacred statue of a golden dragon before it is stolen by a greedy outsider.
[Education S Collection: S. Al547k]

Alvarez, Julia
The Secret Footprints. 2000.
A story based on Dominican folklore, about the Ciguapas, a tribe of beautiful underwater people whose feet are attached backwards, with their toes pointing in the direction from which they have come.
[Education S Collection: Q. S.398.2 Al86s]

Angelou, Maya
My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me. 1994.
A South African girl describes her pet chicken, painting special designs on her house, dressing up for school, and her mischievous brother.
[Education S Collection: S.704.042 AN43M]

Barry, Dave and Pearson, Ridley
Peter and the Starcatchers. 2004.
Soon after Peter, an orphan, sets sail from England on the ship Never Land, he befriends and assists Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a greedy pirate and the native inhabitants of a remote island.
[Center for Children’s Books: S. B279p]

Chabon, Michael
Summerland. 2002.
Ethan Feld, the worst baseball player in the history of the game, finds himself recruited by a 100-year-old scout to help a band of fairies triumph over an ancient enemy.
[Education S Collection: S.C342s]

Clark, Mary Higgins
Ghost Ship: a Cape Cod Story. 2007.
While visiting his grandmother on Cape Cod, nine-year-old Thomas encounters a ship’s cabin boy from centuries past.
[Education S Collection: SE. C5472g]

Dorris, Michael
Morning Girl. 1992.
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island in pre-Columbian America; in Morning Girl’s last narrative, she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to her world.
[Center for Children’s Books: S. D737M]

Erdrich, Louise
The Birchbark House. 1999.
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
[Education S Collection: S. Er292b]

Gaiman, Neil
The Wolves in the Walls. 2003.
Lucy is sure there are wolves living in the walls of her house, although others in her family disagree, and when the wolves come out, the adventure begins.
[Uni High Graphic Novels: GN G127wo]

Goodman, Allegra
The Other Side of the Island. 2008.
Born in the eighteenth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another “unpredictable,” to uncover a terrible secret about their island and the corporation that runs everything.
[Education S Collection: S. G621o]

Hiaasen, Carl
Hoot. 2002.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
[Education S Collection: S.H52h]

Hoffman, Alice
Moondog. 2004.
When a family adopts a well-behaved puppy that they name Angel, everything is fine until the next full moon.
[Education S Collection: SE. H675m]

Hornby, Nick
Slam. 2007.
At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones’s girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam’s life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically.
[Education S Collection: S. H783s]

Koontz, Dean
The Paper Doorway: Funny Verse and Nothing Worse. 2001.
A collection of humorous poetry for children.
[Education Storage: S.811 K837p]

Mitchard, Jacquelyn
Ready, Set, School! 2007.
After Rory the raccoon conquers his fear of spending an entire night away from home, he is prepared to tackle the challenge of starting school just one week later, whether his parents are ready or not.
[Education S Collection: Q. S. M691re]

McCall Smith, Alexander
The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean. 2006.
When her absent-minded inventor father suddenly remembers that he has five sisters, nine-year-old Harriet Bean, who has never heard of them before, determines to find her unknown aunts so that the unfinished family portrait can be completed.
[Education S Collection: S. S. M124f]

Morrison, Toni
The Big Box. 1999.
Because they do not abide by the rules written by the adults around them, three children are judged unable to handle their freedom and forced to live in a box with three locks on the door.
[Education S Collection: Q. SE. M8341b]

Oates, Joyce Carol
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away. 2006.
Blaming herself for the car accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge that killed her mother, fifteen-year-old Jenna undergoes a difficult physical and emotional recovery.
[Education S Collection: S. Oa8a]

Pratchett, Terry
Nation. 2008.
After a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.
[Education S Collection: S. P887n]

Prose, Francine
Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig. 2005.
After a scientist accuses him of lying, Leopold, who has told tales in Leipzig’s zoo for many years, is surprised to find that he must explain the nature of storytelling.
[Center for Children’s Books: SE. P945l]

Tan, Amy
The Moon Lady. 1992.
Nai-nai tells her granddaughters the story of her outing, as a seven-year-old girl in China, to see the Moon Lady and be granted a secret wish.
[Education S Collection: Q.SE. T1532M]

Updike, John
A Child’s Calendar. 1999.
A collection of twelve poems describing the activities in a child’s life and the changes in the weather as the year moves from January to December.
[Education S Collection: S.811 Up1c1999]

Walker, Alice
There is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me. 2006.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker invites readers young and old to see the world — and our place in it — through new eyes. Glowing colors and radiant images accompany this joyous celebration of the connections and interconnections between self, Nature, and creativity.
[Education S Collection: Q. S. W1521th]