Authors Spill the Beans—for Kids!

Greenlight Bookseller Ben Hoffman sits down with authors writing for middle graders in a new video interview series made just for kids! It's a great resource for parents and teachers, with writing tips and insights for being creative while stuck at home (plus some silly clips and sound effects for kids too!).

Kids can send their questions for the authors to ben@greenlightbookstore.com or direct message us at @greenlightbklyn on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, and Ben will answer them in our next video! 

Stay tuned for more authors, and remember to support Greenlight by buying their books here!

 

 


#4: Zoraida Córdova

Award-winning author Zoraida Córdova spills the beans on building a fantasy world, and how her lifelong love of fairy tales inspired the invention of the magical realm of The Way to Rio Luna, her new action-packed, middle-grade novel.  

Watch the interview on YouTube here!

Find Zoraida's books for purchase below!

 

 


#3: Hena Khan

Critically acclaimed author Hena Khan spills the beans on reimagining a classic, and how her lifelong love of Little Women, combined with her own family and culture, inspired the creation of her novel More to the Story about sisters Jameela, Maryam, Bisma, and Aleeza.

Watch the interview on YouTube here!

Find Hena's books for purchase below!

 

 


#2: Beth Kephart 

National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart spills the beans on writing fiction inspired by the people, places, and things you love, including the many real-life friends and experiences that helped form the basis of her new middle-grade novel, The Great Upending.

Watch the interview on YouTube here!

Find Beth's books for purchase below!

 

 


#1: Debbie Levy

Award-winning author Debbie Levy spills the beans on writing biographies, plus what she learned about (and from) Ruth Bader Ginsburg through writing her picture book, I Dissent, and her middle-grade graphic novel, Becoming RBG. 

Watch the interview on YouTube here!

Find Debbie's books for purchase below!

 

 

 


 

The Way to Rio Luna By Zoraida Córdova Cover Image
$17.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781338239546
Published: Scholastic Press - June 2nd, 2020

For fans of The Land of Stories comes an adventure that reveals the secret warnings hidden inside all classic tales -- beware fairyland at all costs.

Eleven-year-old Danny Monteverde believes in magic. He knows that pixie dust is real, that wardrobes act as portals, and that rabbit holes lead to Wonderland. Most of all, he believes that his older sister, Pili, is waiting for him somewhere in Rio Luna, the enchanted land in their favorite book of fairy tales.

Danny doesn't care what the adults say. He knows that Pili isn't another teen runaway. When the siblings were placed in separate foster homes, she promised that she'd come back for him, and they'd build a new life together in Rio Luna.

Yet as the years pass, Danny's faith begins to dim. But just when he thinks it might be time to put foolish fairy tales behind him, he finds a mysterious book in the library. It's a collection of stories that contain hints about how to reach another world. A map to Rio Luna . . . and to Pili.

As his adventure takes him from New York to Ecuador to Brazil, Danny learns that meeting your favorite characters isn't always a dream come true. But nothing will stop him from finding his sister . . . even if it means standing up to the greatest threat the magical realm has ever known


Incendiary (Hollow Crown #1) By Zoraida Córdova Cover Image
$18.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781368023801
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - April 28th, 2020

Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas) By Zoraida Córdova Cover Image
$10.99
ISBN: 9781492623168
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Sourcebooks Fire - August 1st, 2017

The Vicious Deep By Zoraida Córdova Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9781402274411
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Sourcebooks Fire - November 1st, 2012

More to the Story By Hena Khan Cover Image
$17.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781481492096
Published: Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for You - September 3rd, 2019

From the critically acclaimed author of Amina’s Voice comes a new story inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, Little Women, featuring four sisters from a modern American Muslim family living in Georgia.

When Jameela Mirza is picked to be feature editor of her middle school newspaper, she’s one step closer to being an award-winning journalist like her late grandfather. The problem is her editor-in-chief keeps shooting down her article ideas. Jameela’s assigned to write about the new boy in school, who has a cool British accent but doesn’t share much, and wonders how she’ll make his story gripping enough to enter into a national media contest.

Jameela, along with her three sisters, is devastated when their father needs to take a job overseas, away from their cozy Georgia home for six months. Missing him makes Jameela determined to write an epic article—one to make her dad extra proud. But when her younger sister gets seriously ill, Jameela’s world turns upside down. And as her hunger for fame looks like it might cost her a blossoming friendship, Jameela questions what matters most, and whether she’s cut out to be a journalist at all...

"[C]omfortingly familiar yet also entirely new, like an old friend given a makeover. The characters are believable and endearing, and their problems are emotionally weighty. The ways they find to support each other through difficulties, to fight, and to forgive highlight the reasons why Little Women still finds adoring fans...A delightful concept well executed, this volume is sure to find many fans."
— Kirkus Reviews


Amina's Voice By Hena Khan Cover Image
$7.99
ISBN: 9781481492072
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for You - May 1st, 2018

Like the Moon Loves the Sky: (Mommy Book for Kids, Islamic Children's Book, Read-Aloud Picture Book) By Hena Khan, Saffa Khan (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Hena Khan, Saffa Khan (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781452180199
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Chronicle Books - March 10th, 2020

Under My Hijab By Hena Khan, Aaliya Jaleel (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Hena Khan, Aaliya Jaleel (Illustrator)
$18.95
ISBN: 9781620147924
Availability: Available In Store Now (while supplies last)
Published: Lee & Low Books - February 5th, 2019

Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors (A Muslim Book Of Concepts) By Hena Khan, Mehrdokht Amini (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Hena Khan, Mehrdokht Amini (Illustrator)
$7.99
ISBN: 9781452141213
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Chronicle Books - March 3rd, 2015

The Great Upending By Beth Kephart Cover Image
$17.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781481491563
Published: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books - March 31st, 2020

When a troubled children’s book author moves to their farm, two kids with troubles of their own hatch a scheme to swipe the ending of the final book in a bestselling series to get a reward from the book’s publisher in this gorgeously written novel in the tradition of Wonder and Out of My Mind.

Twelve-year-old Sara and her brother Hawk are told that they are not to bother the man—The Mister—who just moved into the silo apartment on their farm. It doesn’t matter that they know nothing about him and they think they ought to know something. It doesn’t matter that he’s always riding that unicycle around. Mama told them no way, no how are they to bother The Mister unless they want to be in a mess of trouble.

Trouble is the last thing Sara and her brother need. Sara’s got a condition, you see. Marfan syndrome. And that Marfan syndrome is causing her heart to have problems, the kind of problems that require surgery. But the family already has problems: The drought has dried up their crops and their funds, which means they can’t afford any more problems, let alone a surgery to fix those problems. Sara can feel the weight of her family’s worry, and the weight of her time running out, but what can a pair of kids do?

Well, it all starts with…bothering The Mister.

*"[For] readers who love good storytelling and spirited heroines.... As refreshing as rainfall on a dry field." 
— Booklist, starred review

"[A] gentle, lovely tale of a deeply bonded family, replete with a clever mystery."
— Kirkus Reviews


Wild Blues By Beth Kephart, William Sulit (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Beth Kephart, William Sulit (Illustrator)
$9.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781481491549
Published: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books - June 18th, 2019

A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage By Beth Kephart Cover Image
$21.95
ISBN: 9780393340983
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - June 17th, 1998

Trini's Big Leap By Beth Kephart, Alexander de Wit, William Sulit (Illustrator) Cover Image
$17.95
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9780999658451
Published: Penny Candy Books - August 13th, 2019

Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Journey to Justice By Debbie Levy, Whitney Gardner (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Debbie Levy, Whitney Gardner (Illustrator)
$12.99
ISBN: 9781534424555
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - November 5th, 2019

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Dissent comes a biographical graphic novel about celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a modern feminist icon—a leader in the fight for equal treatment of girls and women in society and the workplace. She blazed trails to the peaks of the male-centric worlds of education and law, where women had rarely risen before.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has often said that true and lasting change in society and law is accomplished slowly, one step at a time. This is how she has evolved, too. Step by step, the shy little girl became a child who questioned unfairness, who became a student who persisted despite obstacles, who became an advocate who resisted injustice, who became a judge who revered the rule of law, who became…RBG.


Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Journey to Justice By Debbie Levy, Whitney Gardner (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Debbie Levy, Whitney Gardner (Illustrator)
$19.99
ISBN: 9781534424562
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - November 5th, 2019

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark By Debbie Levy, Elizabeth Baddeley (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Debbie Levy, Elizabeth Baddeley (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781481465595
Availability: Not In Store / Available To Order (allow for shipping time to bookstore or direct-to-home)
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - September 20th, 2016

This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality By Jo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie Levy Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781681198521
Availability: Backordered
Published: Bloomsbury Children's Books - January 8th, 2019

The Year of Goodbyes: A True Story of Friendship, Family and Farewells By Debbie Levy Cover Image
$12.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781368054553
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - September 24th, 2019

We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song By Debbie Levy, Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator), Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Cover design or artwork by) Cover Image
By Debbie Levy, Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator), Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Cover design or artwork by)
$18.99
Email orders@greenlightbookstore.com for information about this item.
ISBN: 9781423119548
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - December 17th, 2013

The Key from Spain: Flory Jagoda and Her Music By Debbie Levy, Sonja Wimmer (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Debbie Levy, Sonja Wimmer (Illustrator)
$7.99
ISBN: 9781541522190
Availability: Backordered
Published: Kar-Ben Publishing (R) - August 1st, 2019