Dan Santat is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design and has published over one hundred books for children. His most notable titles include The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, which won the Randolph Caldecott Medal in 2015, the #1 New York Times best-selling road trip/time travel adventure Are We There Yet?, and the New York Times best-selling book After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again), which was named best book of the year on numerous publications including NPR and The New York Public Library. His artwork is also featured in numerous picture books, chapter books, and middle-grade novels, including Dav Pilkey’s Ricky Ricotta series.

Dan lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, and many, many pets.

Friday, March 6 12:00 p.m.

Padma Venkatraman is the WNDB Walter Dean Myers award-winning author The Bridge Home, a 2019 Global Read Aloud; Island’s End, A Time to Dance and Climbing the Stairs. All her books have been featured on numerous best book lists, received a total of over 20 starred reviews, and won multiple honors (ALA Notable books, NYPL Notable, Kirkus Best Book, Booklist Editor’s Choice, SLJ Best Book, PW Flying Start, etc.) and awards (including two South Asia Book Awards, two Paterson prizes, a Julia Ward Howe Boston Authors Club Award, SCBWI Golden Kite award and many more).

Padma’s latest novel,  Born Behind Bars,  about a boy learning to fend for himself on the streets of an Indian city and fighting to save his incarcerated mother, is now available for order. A beloved character from The Bridge Home reappears in Born Behind Bars.

Padma explored rainforests and coral reefs, led diversity efforts at a university, served as chief scientist on ships where she was the only female and only person of color, taught and directed a school in England, obtained a doctorate in oceanography from the College of William and Mary, and conducted environmental engineering research at Johns Hopkins University, before becoming a full-time author. 

When she was nineteen, she left India on her own and is now an American. As a first-generation immigrant and a BIPOC woman with an invisible disability, she has been dedicated, for over a decade, to fighting for equity and diversity. She is the founder of Authors Take Action and Diverse Verse and two of her poems were recently published in Poetry magazine.

Follow Padma on Twitter at @padmatv to participate in her book giveaways, connect with her via Instagram/Facebook @venkatraman.padma, and discover free writing prompts and other resources on her website www.padmavenkatraman.com.