I’m a children’s author and journalist living in Madison, Wisconsin. My picture books include Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass (Scholastic); Miss Paul and the President: The Creative Campaign for Women’s Right to Vote (Knopf); Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing (Knopf); and The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon (Scholastic), Thank You, Dr. Salk! (Farrar Straus Giroux), The Fastest Girl on Earth!: Meet Kitty O’Neil, Daredevil Driver! (Knopf), ¡Mambo Mucho Mambo!: The Dance That Crossed Color Lines (Candlewick), You Are a Star, Ruth Bader Ginsburg! (Scholastic), You Are a Star, Jane Goodall (Scholastic), You Are a Star, Malala Yousafzai (Scholastic), and The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith! (Candlewick), and The Shape of Things: How Mapmakers Picture Our World (Knopf).

I’ve idolized real-life heroes ever since I was a child. My first crushes were courageous civil rights champions like Jackie Robinson, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony. My office at home is lined with photos of my heroes, from the poet Emily Dickinson to the musician Louis Armstrong to the magician Houdini.

I always loved reading and writing, so it’s no surprise I became a journalist. I’ve had a long career as a reporter, editor, and critic, writing about movies, music, theater, books, and other subjects for magazines and newspapers around the country. For many years I also wrote a syndicated television column. I’ve interviewed lots of interesting people, including actor Robert Redford, artist Yoko Ono, singer Ella Fitzgerald, astronaut Jim Lovell, comedians Lily Tomlin and Joan Rivers, and children’s author Avi. I made use of my journalism experience in interviewing the pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton for Margaret and the Moon and the astronaut-artist Alan Bean for The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon.

I’ve also had fun writing for public radio. If you go to this website’s On the Radio page, you can hear me read my essays about Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jonas Salk, and others I admire.

My wife and child are both writers too, so we spend much of our time at home curled up with our books or madly typing at the keyboard. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.

If you’d like to learn more about my books and the historical figures I love, you can read my articles about Alice Paul in USA Today, Jane Goodall and Jonas Salk in the New York Daily News, and Alan Bean in Space.com; listen to my interview about Two Friends on Public Radio International and about the art of writing nonfiction picture books on Wisconsin Public Radio; or see my interviews in Forbes, The Horn Book, Space.com, Publishers Weekly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Isthmus, The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Magazine, Mr. Schu Reads, the International Literacy Association, and The Capital Times. You can also read about my work in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications; watch the film adaptation of Two Friends by Weston Woods Studios; or listen to the Mambo Mucho Mambo! audio book. I published an essay in Nerdy Book Club about the heroes–and superheroes–who inspired me to start writing children’s books.

I’ve been lucky to have books appear on best-of-the-year lists from the American Library Association, Smithsonian, Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, Children’s Book Council, Space.com, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Raleigh News and Observer, National Science Teaching Association, A Mighty Girl, Planetary Society, California Reading Association, Council for Wisconsin Writers, Wisconsin State Reading Association, Kentucky Association of School Librarians, Nebraska Library Association, the Amelia Bloomer List, and others. They’ve received starred reviews from Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal and been chosen as Amazon Editors’ Picks. Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass was adapted for film and included in the exhibition Fighters for Freedom at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

You can find a sampling of photos from my public appearances on this website’s Events page. And educators can learn about my school presentations on the School Visits & Resources page.

I hope to meet you at one of my readings or school visits so we can chat about my idols and yours.