Illinois Authors

As he camps overnight in the backyard, an aspiring young cowboy with a healthy imagination spends his first night on the range.

Feiwel and Friends, 2008.

Karen Hesse has achieved many honors for her more than twenty books over the course of her award-winning career: the Newbery Medial, The Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award, The MacArthur Fellowship Genius Award, and the Christopher Medal. Her novels burn with intensity, and keenly felt, deeply researched, and are memorable for their imagination and intelligence. So it is with great pride and excitement that we present Karen Hesse's first novel in over five years: Brooklyn Bridge. It's the summer of 1903 in Brooklyn and all fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom wants is to experience the thrill, the grandeur, and the electricity of the new amusement park at Coney Island. But that doesn't seem likely. Ever since his parents—Russian immigrants—invented the stuffed Teddy Bear five months ago, Joseph's life has turned upside down. No longer do the Michtom's gather family and friends around the kitchen table to talk. No longer is Joseph at leisure to play stickball with the guys. Now, Joseph works. And complains. And falls in love. Joseph hopes he'll see Coney Island soon. He hopes that everything will turn right-side up again. He hopes his luck hasn't run out—because you never know. Through all the warmth, the sadness, the frustration, and the laughter of one big, cvolorful family, Newbery Medalist Karen Hesse builds a stunning story of the lucky, the unlucky, and those in between, and remind us that our lives—all our lives—are fragile, precious, and connected. --

Holiday House, New York : ©2013.

Tired of his twelve-hour shifts and facing danger daily, Bitty, a canary whose courage more than makes up for his small size, treks to the state capital to try to improve working conditions in coal mines.

Arthur A. Levine Books, New York : ©2007.

Using a mouse as bait instead of a worm, an old woman fishes all night long, confusing the fishermen as well as the Man in the Moon.

Greenwillow Books, New York : ©2007.

With her father away and her brother injured, it is up to little Pip to find food for her hungry siblings and mother mouse, but it is a hard winter and the only place where she is likely to find Christmas dinner is at Land's End, where the people live.

A wolf pack's alpha gets a disappointing surpirse when his first born son is not like a normal wolf, but rather one who has fallen for a coyote --

Holiday House, [Place of publication not identified] : 2015.

Hunter Moran hunts for a long-buried treasure, tearing up the town and getting into some tight spots in the process.

When neighbor Sarah Yulefski tells Zack and Hunter that she overheard someone talking about plans to kidnap someone in their town, the twins use the last four days of summer vacation to investigate.

New York : While trying to hide an incriminating report card and dodge meddling siblings, fifth-grade twins Hunter and Zack set out to save their town from a diabolical dentist who is planning to blow it to smithereens.

After a visit to a museum of natural history, a young girl begins to see dinosaurs everywhere.

Twelve-year-old Sammy's summer is full of complications, but he comes to appreciate what he already has even as he is working toward his long-held dream of owning a purebred puppy.

Arriving at a farm with sore paws and an empty stomach, a dog tries to convince the farmer that he could be just as valuable as a cow, a horse, or a chicken.

Creative Editions, Mankato, MN : 2006.

Illustrations and rhyming text relate the details of Red Fox's failed raid of the henhouse at McCloskey's Farm.

In this semi-autobiographical picture book, author Patricia MacLachlan relates what it might take to grow up to become a writer.

Schwartz & Wade Books, New York : ©2012.

Once popular, an increasingly shabby library book grows lonely until a young girl rediscovers it, but when it becomes lost again both the book and the girl wonder if they will have a happy ending.

Dial Books for Young Readers, New York : 2001.

With her younger brother in danger, fifteen-year-old, overweight Maddie runs out of the house she has not left since she was two years old and her grandfather disappeared after they visited the town library together.

Creative Editions, Mankato, Minn. : 2001.

The barn-tall old plainswoman Susannah DeClare braves deep snow and icy weather to fulfill her promise to deliver a load of handmade shoes to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, by Christmas.

Arthur A. Levine Books, New York : 2003.

A seagull, dying from the effects of an oil spill, entrusts her egg to Zorba the cat, who promises to care for it until her chick hatches, then teach the chick to fly.

When you could neither talk nor stand, life's hourglass still filled with sand, I gently held your tiny hand and gave it three soft squeezes. When you awoke within the night and cried from fear and called for light, I held you safe with all my might. and gave you three long squeezes. Follow a father and his son from babyhood to baseball games to graduation and beyond in this loving saga about the unbreakable bond between generations. A perfect gift, Three Squeezes is a tender, rhyming picture book that is an ode to the love between parent and child, no matter how old the child (or) parent is. --

If you give a child a box, who can tell what will happen next? It may become a library or a boat. It could set the scene for a fairy tale or a wild expedition. The most wonderful thing is its seemingly endless capacity for magical adventure.