M Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Hudson Childrens Book Festival

Masiello, Ralph

Masiello, Ralph

Ralph resides in the state of Massachusetts, USA, where he lives with his daughters Alexa and Talia. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA, Illustration, 1985), Ralph has illustrated for magazines, newspapers and books, created posters and prints, and shown his fine art paintings in galleries throughout the world. Since 1987, he has visited over 2,800 schools all over the world, inspiring children with his life story, humor, and art. While visiting schools, he is often inspired himself by the enthusiasm, creativity, and hard work of the students and teachers. This led him to create his unique “How to Draw” book series. In 2011, his work appeared in a strange and mysterious book called The Mystic Phyles: Beasts. Newest in the series his series of How to Draw books is the Ralph Masiello’s Unicorn Drawing Book. March 2020 is the release of his Fantastic Fruits: A Grimal Grove Coloring Book, which is about rare and unusual tropical fruits. www.ralphmasiello.com

Society Of Illustrators Award of Merit (twice)
Charlotte Award (NYSRA 2004)
IRA/CBC Children’s Choice Award
NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book
Early Childhood News Director’s Choice Award
ABA Kids’ Pick of the Lists
Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year

3 Fun Facts

1. I have an imaginary friend…ask me about him!
2. I race motocross (dirtbikes) and still jump over 90 feet in the air! I’m 58 and still a kid.
3. I was raised by dragons. Just kidding!
Alternate fact: My oldest daughter, Alexa, has Rett Syndrome. Google it!
Alternate fact 2: I have actually visited over 3300 schools since 1987.

Miller, Sam J.

Miller, Sam J.

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His debut novel The Art of Starving (YA/SF) was published by HarperCollins in 2017, and will be followed by Blackfish City from Ecco Press in 2018. His stories have been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards, and have appeared in over a dozen “year’s best” anthologies. He’s a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Workshop, and a winner of the Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in New York City, and at www.samjmiller.com

3 Fun Facts

1. I grew up in Hudson; my family owned Sam’s Supermarket on Warren Street!
2. I was Most Valuable Player on the Hudson High Swim Team (also, I was the only player on the Hudson High Swim Team)
3. Joan Rivers made fun of me once, and it was The Greatest Thing.

Mack, Jeff

Mack, Jeff

Jeff Mack spent his childhood drawing monsters, making comic books, and building haunted houses in his basement. He has spent most of his adulthood doing the same things.

He has written and illustrated a long list of award- winning picture books, chapter books, and early readers, including the Clueless McGee series, Good News Bad News, Hush Little Polar Bear, Look!, and Mine!.

He has also illustrated James Howe’s Bunnicula and Friends series and Eve Bunting’s Hurry! Hurry!.

Now from Western Massachusetts, he travels widely visiting schools and talking with kids about creating books. Visit him at www.jeffmack.com.

3 Fun Facts

1. My favorite children’s book author/illustrator is William Steig.
2. I named Clueless McGee after my dog McGee.
3. Clueless McGee was originally going to be about a dog who wears pajamas and solves mysteries, but I didn’t want it to be like Scooby-Doo. So I turned the dog into a fifth-grade boy.

Miller, Daniel Jude

Miller, Daniel Jude

Daniel Jude Miller is the author and illustrator of the children’s picture book series Monsters in Manhattan, as well as Everybody Wake Up, Earclaw and Eddie and the upcoming Halloween Boy and the Christmas Kid. Growing up in Queens, NY and going to college and working in Manhattan for many years inspired him to write and draw all the creatures and goblins he came across on a daily basis. He now lives upstate, far from the clutches of those monsters. www.djudemiller.com

3 Fun Facts

1. I met my wife while working up in the clouds on the 65th floor of the Empire State Building.
2. I have a baseball hat collection, 279 and counting…
3. My middle name is Jude. It’s also the middle name of my brother, two sisters and son. And I donate a dollar from every book to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Magaziner, Lauren

Lauren Magaziner is the author of The Mythics series, the Case Closed series, The Only Thing Worse Than Witches, Wizardmatch, and Pilfer Academy. She is originally from New Hope, Pennsylvania, and she currently lives in Philadelphia, where she writes full-time. Lauren is also a secret undercover international detective—but don’t blow her cover. You can visit Lauren at www.laurenmagaziner.com.

Awards:
The Case Closed series is an international bestseller in Spain and Italy. Lauren’s books have been translated into ten languages, been on the Indie Next List, been a JLG selection, been featured in The Chicago Tribune, and optioned for a TV movie by Nickelodeon.

3 Fun Facts

1. My new series The Mythics is about mythical beast animal companions – If I had a mythical beast animal companion, it would be a dragon.
2. I use a giant whiteboard to draft each book in the pick-your-path Case Closed series. I write each plotline in a different color. My whiteboard holds many secrets: including where the dead ends are and who the culprit is!
3. When I lived in Scotland, I dunked my face in a fairy river of eternal youth. Legend says that if you leave your face in for exactly seven seconds, you will never age. Come find me in twenty years with the same exact face.

McAnulty, Stacy

McAnulty, Stacy

Stacy McAnulty is an award-winning children’s book author, who used to be a mechanical engineer, and who dreams of someday being a dog therapist, a correspondent for The Daily Show, an astronaut, and a Green Bay Packer coach. She’s written over 30 books, including the middle-grade novel, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, and the popular Our Universe picture book series. Her debut middle-grade nonfiction, Save the People! Halting Human Extinction was favorably reviewed in the New York Times. Most of her books include a STEM angle or an adorable dog—some have both. Originally from upstate NY, she now lives in Kernersville, NC. www.stacymcanulty.com

Awards
– Indie Bestseller The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl
– Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Recipient for Excellent Ed
– 2019 Mathical Prize Winners for The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl
– The 2021-2022 Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Winner for Millionaires for the Month

3 Fun Facts

1. I believe intelligent life exists beyond Earth, but I’d really like to know for sure!
2. I studied mechanical engineering in college and then worked designing first-class airline seats. (Yet, I’ve never sat in a first-class airline seat.)
3. Local roots! Both my parents were born and raised in Hudson, and we adopted my first dog, Mandy, from the Columbia-Greene Humane Society.

Mojica, Barbara Ann

Mojica, Barbara Ann

Barbara Ann Mojica, M.A. S.A.S., S.D.A is a historian and retired educator. Her education career spans more than forty years serving as a teacher, special educator, principal, and school district administrator. Barbara writes monthly historical articles for the Columbia Insider under the banner “Passages.” Using the whimsical Little Miss History character to narrate her book series, Barbara hopes to entertain, inspire, and empower children to become tomorrow’s leaders. Little Miss History’s antics make reading nonfiction a fun-filled adventure for all ages. She firmly believes, “If you don’t know your history, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” LittleMissHISTORY.com

The Little Miss HISTORY book series has garnered over two dozen awards including B.R.A.G. Medallions, International Book Excellence Awards, International Readers’ Favorite Awards, Eric Hoffer, Purple Dragonfly, and Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards.

3 Fun Facts

1. I once got locked inside my elementary school.
2. I nearly got thrown out of the Moscow Circus.
3. I am still teaching with TWO-MINUTE TEACHER lessons on my you tube channel

Mojica, Victor Ramon

Mojica, Victor Ramon

Illustrator, cartoonist, writer and publisher, Victor has produced comic strips, comic books, coloring books, children’s books, authored websites, written poetry and screenplays. He is mostly self-taught in all these endeavors. “I’ve been writing and drawing since the age of five. I love producing art and stories so much I started my own publishing company in 1992. www.eugenus.com

Awards
The Cecil Hemley Memorial Award for poem “Friend or Foe.”
The BRAG Medallion Award for Captain CROSSBONES in The Treasure Hunt.
Hollywood Book Festival’s Award for Best Graphic Novel eugenus, The Next Step in Human Evolution!

Fun Facts

1. I once broke into my own office after locking myself out.
2. I was mistaken for Tony Danza in a casino he frequented.
3. I beat at chess a Columbia University Chess Champion 3 times in a row and left undefeated.

Maldonado, Torrey

Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook. He has taught in New York City public schools for over 25 years and his fast-paced, compelling stories are inspired by his and his students’ experiences. His popular young readers novels include What Lane?, which won many starred reviews and was cited by Oprah Daily and the NY Times for being essential to discuss racism and allyship; Tight won the Christopher Award, was an ALA Notable Book, and an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year; and his first novel, Secret Saturdays, has stayed in print for over ten years. Learn more at torreymaldonado.com or connect on social media @torreymaldonado.

Awards
What Lane? is a Kirkus Best Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, a Washington Post Best Book, an NPR Best Book.
Tight is a Christopher Award winner, a Washington Post Best Book, and an ALA Notable Book.
Secret Saturdays is an ALA “Quick Pick”.

3 Fun Facts

1. I got hooked on comic books in the third grade. By middle school, I had almost two hundred collectibles. I also had a cat named Snow White and she peed on and scratched my collection down to fifty comics. So I secretly wish I had the super power of pausing and redirecting pets to pee in the right places freeze to prevent people from losing things we love.
2. I’m pretty sure that, wherever I am, no one in a five mile radius can beat me in Scrabble OR no one in a five mile radius would enjoy losing as much as me in Scrabble. Visit my table to play me and even if I lose, it will be fun to play!
3. As a teen, for about a month, I taped my ears to my head with black electrical tape because I thought that would flatten my then big ears. It didn’t work. Good thing that my skull in high school grew and caught up with my ears.

MacCready, Robin Merrow

MacCready, Robin Merrow

Robin Merrow MacCready, is the author of two YA novels, A Lie For A Lie and the Edgar Award Winning, “Buried.” She lives in midcoast Maine where she teaches and writes. Robin lives with her husband, two boys and numerous pets. When she’s not teaching she can be found making art, writing books, and playing outdoors. www.robinmerrowmaccready.com

3 Fun Facts

1. She loves to forage for wild food, especially mushrooms.
2. She lived in Norway for a year.
3. As a teenager she wanted to be a rock and roll singer, but never told anyone.