Contemporary New Hampshire authors of books for children

Rebecca Rule, New Hampshire’s 2003 Read Across America celebrity reader, created this list of New Hampshire authors. The list is alphabetical and includes types of books, selected titles, and a comment or two from Rebecca.
More about our celebrity reader.

 

• Roberta Baker, Tilton, picture book: No Ordinary Olive. “Olive” makes a case for arts integration in school curriculums.

• Odds Bodkin, Bradford, picture books: The Banshee Train, The Crane Wife. He’s a nationally known storyteller with many audio books out as well.

• Janet Buell, Goffstown, nonfiction: Ancient Horsemen of Siberia, Bog Bodies, Greenland Mummies, Ice Maiden of the Andes. She’s a teacher who has focused in this series on a subject that fascinates kids—dead things.

• Julie Brillhart, Canterbury, picture books: The Dino Expert, Molly Rides the School Bus. She writes and illustrates with great humor.

• Deborah Bruss, Bradford, picture book: Book!Book!Book! Her debut book is illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. It’s about a chicken, a library, and a well-read frog.

• Maryanne Cocca-Leffler, Amherst, picture books: Missing: One Stuffed Rabbit, Bravery Soup. Sometimes she illustrates books for other writers, too—Eve Bunting, for example.

• Tomie dePaola, New London, picture books and autobiographical chapter books: Strega Nona, Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs, Antonio the Bread Boy. He is one of the best-known, best loved, and most prolific writer/illustrators in the country, having produced more than a hundred books.

• Deborah Doyle and James D. MacDonald, Colebrook, young adult fiction: Groogleman. This husband and wife team writes science fiction and fantasy for adults as well as children.

• Muriel Dubois, Bedford, nonfiction: Abenaki Captive. She’s a fourth-grade teacher with a special interest in New Hampshire history.

• Jennifer Ericsson, Bow, picture books: She Did It, No Milk, The Most Beautiful Kid in the World. This writer/illustrator works at Gibson’s Book Store in Concord, specializing, of course, in children’s books and events.

• Jeff Fair, Sandwich, nonfiction: Moose for Kids, Bears for Kids. He’s an adventurer who celebrates wildlife in his books.

• Ralph Fletcher, Lee, young adult fiction and poetry: Fig Pudding, I Am Wings, Buried Alive, Relatively Speaking, Have You Been to the Beach Lately? He writes insightfully and humorously about family life in poetry and prose.

• Sally Ford, Durham, picture book: Bungee’s Voyage. Bungee is a little dog who takes a long sea voyage. Self-publishing the book was another kind of voyage for the first-time author. Peter Dudley did the illustrations.

• Jill Galvin, Concord, picture book: My Lucky Fishing Spot. Her first book has a New Hampshire setting and is self-published with artwork by Maryanne Piro.

• Donald Graves, Jackson, poetry: Baseball, Snakes and Summer Squash: Poems About Growing Up. He is also the author of many books for teachers and writers.

• Judith Heide Gilliland, Amherst, picture books and nonfiction: River, Sami and the Time of the Troubles, The Day of Ahmed’s Secret. Sami is set in Beruit where Gilliland once lived. She wrote it and Ahmed’s Secret with her mother Florence Parry Heide.

• Donald Hall, South Danbury, picture books: Ox-Cart Man, The Man Who Lived Alone, When Willard Met Babe Ruth, Lucy’s Christmas. Former NH Poet Laureate, he is nationally known for his poetry and essays including his early nonfiction reminiscence about Danbury and Wilmot, String Too Short to Be Saved.

• Marie Harris, Barrington, picture book: G is for Granite. The current NH Poet Laureate’s first children’s book is an alphabet book about our state with poetry front-and-center and sidebars of New Hampshire history and culture.

• Efner Tudor Holmes, Hopkinton, picture books: The Christmas Cat, Deer in the Hollow, Carrie’s Gift, Amy’s Goose. Some of her books are illustrated by her mother, Tasha Tudor.

• Jonathan and Lisa Hunt, Claremont, picture books: One is a Mouse. This husband and wife team offers workshops on art and illustration at schools and libraries. They have illustrated many books for other writers

• Peter Paul Jesep, Portsmouth, picture book: Lady Ghost of the Isles of Shoals. Jesep mixes history with his fiction.

• D.B. Johnson, West Lebanon, picture books: Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, Henry Builds a Cabin. He brings Henry David Thoreau to life in these award-winning books, which he also illustrated.

• Beverly Jones, Laconia, chapter book: The Magic Shell. Jones is a retired teacher with 41 years of experience teaching primary-school children. She illustrated and published her book herself.

• Marty Kelley, New Boston, picture books: Summer Stinks, The Rules, Fall is Not Easy. He is a primary school teacher with a playful, irreverent, and sometimes just plain silly sense of humor. He illustrates his own books, too, and the pictures are just as funny as the stories.

• True Kelley, Warner, picture books: My Dog Toby, I’ve Got Chicken Pox, Hammers and Mops, Pencils and Pots, Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies. This is a writer/illustrator with great range and a thriving career. She illustrates books for others as well.

• Linda Morse, Dunbarton, picture book: Sam’s Just Sam. This is a happy day in the life of her special needs child, Sam, who drowned at age ten.

• Diane Mayr, Salem, picture book: Littlebat’s Halloween Story. She is a children’s librarian whose first book takes place in a library. It’s a treasure.

• Medicine Story, Greenville, folk tales: The Children of the Morning Light. He’s a Wampanoag storyteller, also known as Manitonquat, passing on the stories told to him by elders, preserving Native American tradition.

• Mary Lyn Ray, Danbury, picture books: Red Rubber Boot Day, Pumpkins, Mud, A Rumbly Tumbly Glittery Gritty Place, Pianna. An environmentalist and historian, she writes simply and deeply of the wonders of childhood and life in the country.

• Steve Schuch, Hillsboro, picture books: The Gift of the Wee Folk, A Symphony of Whales. He’s a musician and storyteller who shapes his award-winning stories by telling them.

• John Stadler, Lyme, picture books: What’s So Scary? This is a mystery adventure in words and pictures. He created both.

• Virginia Taylor, Hampton, chapter book: Sing Me a Song. This is a novel about a mill girl based on real family letters.

• Cathleen Twomey, Groveton, chapter book: Charlotte’s Choice. Strong first novel about friendship and child abuse set in Missouri in 1905.

• Bruce Whatley and Rosie Smith, Moultonboro, picture books: Whatley’s Quest: An Alphabet Adventure Book. This is their first publication in this country; previous books have come out in Australia, where they’re from. The illustrations are complex and quirky — stories in themselves.

  About our celebrity reader
  Rebecca Rule is author of two collections of short fiction for adults, including The Best Revenge (University Press of New England). She has co-authored two how-to books with Susan Wheeler: Creating the Story and True Stories. Her audiotapes of Yankee humor are Perley Gets a Dumpsticker, Fishing With George, and Mavis Goes to Yoga. Her column on New Hampshire writers, Bookmarks, appears in the Concord Monitor, Nashua Telegraph and the Portsmouth Herald.
  
  The Best Revenge was named outstanding work of fiction by the New Hampshire Writers Project. New Hampshire Magazine recently included her in a list of notable New Hampshire muses, naming her “Thalia: the Muse of Comedy.”
  
  Rebecca writes about the fictional town of Woodford, populated by characters like Kermit, the dumpmaster; Evil Fred, septic man; Cousin Gert, who wears fuchsia spandex; Betsy, a stickler at town hall; the Neighbor and Mrs. Neighbor, new to Woodford; Gracious Alstead, a retired English teacher who knows a lot of big words; and hapless Randy Hickey and his incorrigible dog, Mutt. Through her stories, Rebecca shares her theories about what makes this place so special.
  
  In addition to writing for grownups, Rebecca has been working on a series of books for children. The central character is Biddawee Bear. At a 1997 Read Across America event at the Steeplegate Mall in Concord, she held young children in thrall as she told the story of Biddawee Bear with a finger puppet.
  
  Rebecca will appear at a special Read Across America event with NEA–NH on Monday, March 3.