Barbara Bottner

Bottner has written over 50 books in all areas of children's literature, including YA, Middle Grade, chapter and I Can Read, as well as her award-winning picture books, some of which have been animate and performed as children's theater. One of her recent titles, Miss Brooks Loves Books, was a New York Times best-seller. She has received numerous awards, appeared on many "Best Of" lists, and received children's choice awards. Feeling drawn to children and young adult audiences, Bottner wrote After School Specials with Arlene Sidaris and was a staff writer on the primetime CBS sitcom Scorch. She worked as a writer for Disney's Winnie the Pooh series, and Showtime's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series. Bottner and Sidaris wrote Mama Said. Bottner has contributed features to the Miami Heralds Tropic Magazine, and written about men and women in its "Can't Live Without 'Em" column. She was a contributing editor for LA Weekly, where she wrote humor, features, and interviews with Jerzy Kosinski and Joseph Losey. Her art has been used in the Op Ed section of the New York Times and in MS. Magazine. She has reviewed books for children both in the New York and Los Angeles New York Times Sunday Book Review. Her short stories have been published in Cosmopolitan and Playgirl, and anthologized in two collections. As a teacher, she won the Distinguished Teaching Award from the New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design. She has taught at UCLA and Miami Dade College, lectured around the US on children's literature, and presented at the Bologna Children's Book Fair for SCBWI. Her papers are collected in the Arne Nixon Centre for Children's Literature at Fresno State. She has staffed various conferences, and judged national contests on children's literature. She still led classes in writing for children as late as 1990.

• Horrible Hannah, illustrated by Joan Drescher, Crown, 1980 • Zoo Song, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger, Scholastic, 1987 • Bootsie Barker Bites, illustrated by Peggy Rathmann, Putnam Children's Books, 1992 • Hurricane Music, illustrated by Paul Yalowitz, Putnam, 1995 • Nana Hannah's Piano, illustrated by Diana Cain Bluthenal, Putnam, 1996 • Be Brown!, illustrated by Barry Gott, Grosset & Dunlap, 2002 • Wallace's Lists, illustrated by Olaf Landstrom, co-written with Gerald Kruglik, Katherine Tegen Books, 2004 • Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't), illustrated by Michael Emberley, Knopf Books, 2010 • An Annoying ABC, illustrated by Michael Emberley, Knopf Books, 2011 • Miss Brooks' Story Nook, illustrated by Michael Emberley, Knopf Books, 2014 • Priscilla Gorilla, illustrated by Michael Emberley, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017 • Amy Is Famous, illustrated by Yuyi Chen, Imprint, 2019 • What A Cold Needs, illustrated by Chris Sheban, Holiday House, 2020 • Where's My Turtle, illustrated by Brooke Boynton-Hughes, Random House, 2020 • I Am Here Now, Macmillan, 2020