Writing Resources
Disability in Kidlit – A blog devoted to quality representation of disabled characters in MG and YA.
Diversity in YA – A tumblr devoted to diversity in YA Lit. Includes booklists, guest posts, interviews, and resources for writing.
Kidlit.com – Mary Kole’s blog, with lots of great posts about craft. From a former agent’s point of view! Updated frequently.
Latin@s in Kid Lit – A site with resources for authors about writing Latino characters, as well as Latino book reviews and interviews with Latino authors. I’m doing their 2014 challenge! (Also, it’s not too late to sign up!)
YA Highway – I especially like their “Field Trip Fridays,” which round up links about writing and reading and random things.
Book-Related Blogs
Book-A-Day Almanac – Another great resource for finding books to read.
Collecting Children’s Books – My very favorite children’s book blog done by the late, great Peter D. Sieruta. This one obviously doesn’t update anymore, but you can still read through the Sunday Brunches, chock full of interesting facts and tidbits about children’s books and authors.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors – Great blog about middle grade, run by a group of middle grade authors.
Fuse #8 – You probably already follow Betsy Bird’s awesome blog.
Reading Rants! – A lot of my TBR list comes from this blog. (At least for YA.)
YA Agog Blog – My friend Jane’s tumblr about silly-looking MG and YA covers.
Author Friends and Compatriots
Adam Ellis – Books of Adam: The Blunder Years
Adi Rule – Strange Sweet Song
Allyson Valentine Schrier – How (Not) To Find a Boyfriend
Amy Rose Capetta – Entangled, Unmade
Anne Westrick – Brotherhood
Carol Brendler – Radio Girl, Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer
Caroline Carlson – The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series
Chris Struyk-Bonn – Whisper
Clete Smith – Aliens On Vacation, Alien On a Rampage, Aliens In Disguise
Cori McCarthy – The Color of Rain, Breaking Sky
Corinne Duyvis – Otherbound
Eric Pinder – If All the Animals Came Inside, Cat in the Clouds
Gwenda Bond – Blackwood, The Woken Gods
Heidi Schulz – Hook’s Revenge
Jandy Nelson – The Sky Is Everywhere
Janet Fox – Sirens, Forgiven, Faithful
Jess Leader – Nice & Mean
Kate Boorman – Winterkill
Kate Hosford – Big Bouffant
Kathryn Reiss – Blackthorn Winter, Time Windows, Sweet Miss Honeywell’s Revenge
Kelly Barson – 45 Pounds (More or Less)
Lyn Miller-Lachmann – Rogue, Gringolandia
Maggie Lehrman – The Cost of All Things
Marianna Baer – Frost
Mary Elizabeth Summer – Trust Me, I’m Lying, Trust Me, I’m Trouble
Micol Ostow – Family, So Punk Rock: And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother, Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa
Mikki Knudsen – Library Lion, The Dragon of Trelian, The Princess of Trelian
Rebecca Petruck – Steering Toward Normal
Rosanne Parry – Heart of a Shepherd, Second Fiddle, Written In Stone
Shawn K. Stout – The Fiona Finkelstein series, the Penelope Crumb series
Tami Lewis Brown – The Map of Me, Soar, Elinor!
Trent Reedy – Divided We Fall, Stealing Air, Words In the Dust
Varian Johnson – Saving Maddie, My Life as a Rhombus, The Great Greene Heist
VCFA Professors Who Are Also Authors
A. M. Jenkins – Repossessed, Damage, Beating Heart
An Na – A Step From Heaven, The Fold, Wait For Me
Alan Cumyn – Tilt, The Secret Life of Owen Skye, After Sylvia, Dear Sylvia
Coe Booth – Tyrell, Kendra, Bronxwood
Cynthia Leitich-Smith – Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Tantalize
Ellen Howard – The Crimson Cap, The Gate in the Wall
Franny Billingsley – Chime, The Folk Keeper
Julie Larios – Yellow Elephant, Imaginary Menagerie
Kathi Appelt – The Underneath, Keeper, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
Leda Schubert – Monsieur Marceau: Actor Without Words, Ballet of the Elephants
Louise Hawes – Black Pearls, A Faerie Strand, The Vanishing Point
Margaret Bechard – Hanging on to Max, Spacer and Rat
Marion Dane Bauer – On My Honor, Killing Miss Kitty and Other Sins
Martine Leavitt – My Book of Life by Angel, Keturah and Lord Death
Rita Williams-Garcia – One Crazy Summer, P.S. Be Eleven, Jumped
Sarah Ellis – Odd Man Out, The Queen’s Feet
Sharon Darrow – Trash, The Painters of Lexieville
Shelley Tanaka – Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator, On Board the Titanic
Tim Wynne-Jones – Blink & Caution, The Uninvited, Stephen Fair
Uma Krishnaswami – The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic
Authors I Don’t Know, But Who Are Still Awesome
Catherine Jinks – Evil Genius series
Christopher Paul Curtis – Bud, Not Buddy, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, Elijah of Buxton
Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles, Seven Realms series
Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler – Samurai Detective series
E. Lockhart – The Ruby Oliver series, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Jaclyn Moriarty – Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Year of Secret Assignments, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Ghosts of Ashbury High, A Corner of White
John Green – The Fault In Our Stars, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines
Katherine Paterson – Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Kristin Cashore – Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue
Laurie Halse Anderson – Speak, Chains, Forge
Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) – A Series of Unfortunate Events
Libba Bray – A Great and Terrible Beauty, Beauty Queens
Linda Urban – A Crooked Kind of Perfect
Louis Sachar – Holes, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Sixth Grade Secrets, The Cardturner
Meg Medina – The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Melina Marchetta – Jellicoe Road, Saving Francesca, Finnikin of the Rock
Rebecca Stead – Liar & Spy, When You Reach Me
Sonya Sones – What My Mother Doesn’t Know, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know, One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies