Deborah Hopkinson is the author of more than 40 books for young readers including picture books, middle grade fiction, and nonfiction. In her presentations at schools and conferences, she helps bring history and research alive. She also is frequent instructor at writing workshops for adults. Her work is especially well-suited for STEM and CCSS connections.
Her nonfiction includes Courage & Defiance, Stories of Spies, Saboteurs and Survivors in WWII Denmark, Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, a Robert F. Sibert Award honor book and YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction honor book, and Shutting out the Sky, Life in the Tenements of New York 1880-1924, an NCTE Orbis Pictus award honor book and Jane Addams Award honor book.
Deborah’s award-winning picture books include Sky Boys, How They Built the Empire State Building, an ALA Notable and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book and Apples to Oregon won the Golden Kite Award and Spur Storytelling Award. A four-time Oregon Book Award finalist, Deborah won in 2009 for Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole. Her most recent historical fiction title, The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel was an Oregon Book Award finalist which won the OCTE Oregon Spirit Award.
A former professional in fundraising for colleges and universities, Deborah received a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She lives near Portland, Oregon.
Charlotte Voake (Illustrator) Charlotte Voake was born in Wales and studied at the University of London. Her first illustrations were published while she was studying there in 1978. She won the Sheffield Children's Book Award and the Smarties Book Award twice. She has been shortlisted for both the Kurt Maschler Emil Award and the Kate Greenaway Medal.
