The 3 Children’s Authors You Must Read
By: Shawn Laib
Tags: Education, Books, Children, Creativity, Teaching

Children’s literature is one of the most sacred types of writing in the entire medium. Kids are so impressionable and curious. They want to know the answers to the big questions, taking in all of the information available to them like a sponge.

It takes a truly special author to tap into their own childlike imagination, remembering what intrigued them so many years ago about the world around them.

What makes a high quality book for young ones? Does it teach them about history and people? Does the story have the characters that the reader can relate to, while also not being too harsh about the realities of life?

Is the language overblown with large vocabulary that is not yet understandable? At the same time, kids are not stupid. The writer should never talk down to their audience.

I wanted to present three children’s authors that I enjoyed growing up that I know others benefited from just as much as me. They write timeless stories that are still enjoyed to this day, and hopefully for many more generations into the future. Enjoy!

Mary Pope-Osborne

Author of one of the best-selling children’s series of the past 30 years, her Magic Tree House saga has been mixing culture, history, and fun into a magical mix for multiple generations of children.

Jack and Annie are the brother-sister duo protagonists of the novels, allowing children of both genders to see themselves in the novels while reading about their various adventures. Pope-Osborne runs the gamut on historical and cultural references, sending the siblings back in time through their neighborhood tree house to an enormous set of locations and events.

The American Civil and Revolutionary Wars, the sinking of the Titanic, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the volcanic eruption of Mt.Vesuvius are just a sampling of the iconic time pieces that kids are introduced to in accurate and magical ways.

History is something that people of all ages should educate themselves on more, so it is vital to kindle a love and interest in it from an early age. These books mix fantastical elements and fictional characters right into the nonfictional happenings of real life in a way that I’ve rarely seen in youth literature.

By blurring the line between what’s real and what isn’t, the author convinces the child to have a lifelong love learning about the fascinating countries, mountains, languages, animals, disasters, and peoples that combine to make up our magical planet!

Photo by Vincent Branciforti on Unsplash

Andrew Clements

Known most for the 1996 best-seller Frindle, detailing a student’s made-up term for a pen, Andrew Clements had a unique ability to get inside the mind of the average 11 year old and put their thoughts and emotions onto the page for his readers.

His literature hones in on a single protagonist who usually butts heads with an adult somewhere in the classroom or domestically. Nothing too serious, but the problems all give enough food for thought to munch on for a couple hundred pages.

The kid who stars in the work is given respect by being put on equal footing with the adult who is opposing them. By taking the authority figure and putting that person on equal terms with the younger student, Clements makes both characters see eye-to-eye a little better.

By the end of the novels, the child protagonist has grown up a little more, and the adult has gained greater appreciation for the creativity and innocence of the immature mind.

Although Clements himself is no longer with us, his work will continue to be relatable to elementary and middle school students for decades to come. Themes like imagination, friendship, leadership, and teamwork never go out of style.

Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler

Handler published under the pen name Lemony Snicket when releasing his iconic set of novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events during the early 2000’s. The saga of the three orphaned Baudelaire siblings who are constantly on the run from the evil Count Olaf has sold millions of copies throughout its lifetime and been adapted into a film in 2004 and a Netflix series between 2017–2019.

What makes this work such a must-read for any late-elementary school to middle-school aged kid is the amount of exposure they will receive to real-life problems, but doing so with a whimsy and sense of humor which is unmatched.

The protagonists of the series use their inventiveness, book-smarts, and love of one another to overcome any problem they are faced with, which includes arson, underage marriage, and murder. These are all mature themes that have gotten the books banned from the libraries of certain schools around the United States, but rest assured that all of the topics are covered by Handler in a way that is not disturbing to a child.

Tone and wording make the macabre elements more cartoony or comical than would be indicated in an adult novel. It introduces young readers to key literature analysis practices that they will certainly be doing much more often as they age into new curriculums.

The books force the reader to debate the motivations and intentions behind every protagonist and antagonist, advancing past the surface level plot trope discussions that normally happen in early novel discussions. They’re a must for children and adults alike. And when you can get both age groups in the same room to talk about a book, that’s when you know it’s special.