Kathi Appelt (born July 6, 1954) is an American author of more than forty books for

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

and

young adults In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

. She won the annual PEN USA award for Children's Literature recognizing '' The Underneath'' (2008).

Biography

Kathi Appelt was born in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-Ameri ...

, and grew up in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. She graduated from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

and lives in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin, ...

. Appelt is the author of more than 30 books. She writes novels, picture books, poetry, and

nonfiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively ...

for children and young adults. Her books have been translated into several languages:

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Chinese,

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, and Swedish. She is emerita faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Her first novel was ''The Underneath'', illustrated by

David Small David Small (born February 12, 1945) is an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's picture books. His books have been awarded a Caldecott Medal and two Caldecott Honors, among other recognition. Biography David Small ...

and published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

in 2008. It features a cat and dog who live mainly beneath an old house in the Louisiana–Texas

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

. For that work she received the annual Children's Literature award from

PEN Center USA PEN Center USA was a branch of PEN International, a literary and human rights organization. It was one of two PEN International Centers in the United States, the other being PEN America in New York City. On March 1, 2018, PEN Center USA unified ...

"2009 Lit Awards"
PEN Center USA (penusa.org). Archived 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2014-09-24. and she was also a runner-up for the National Book Award (

National Book Award for Young People's Literature The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writer ...

finalist) and the American Library Association

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

(Newbery Honor Book). Her papers are held in the

de Grummond Children's Literature Collection The McCain Library and Archives is the chief reserve library for The University of Southern Mississippi. It houses the items in Southern Mississippi's possession that are not available for checkout. Besides being the archives, the building also ...

at the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bac ...

(unprocessed manuscripts collection, 1985–2005).

Selected works

* ''Someone’s Come to Our House'', illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (Eerdmans, 1999) * ''The Alley Cat's Meow'', illustrated by Jon Goodell (Harcourt, 2002) * ''Poems from Homeroom: A Writer's Place to Start'' (

Henry Holt and Co Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. The company publishes in the fields of American ...

., 2002) * '' The Underneath'', illustrated by David Small (Simon & Schuster, 2008) * ''Brand-New Baby Blues'', illustrated by Kelly Murphy (HarperCollins, 2009) * '' Keeper'', illus. August Hall (

Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since it acquired Macmillan in 1994, and it created Atheneum ...

, 2010) * ''The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp'' (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013) * ''Maybe a Fox,'' illus. Alison McGee (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2016) * ''Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky'', co-authored by Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer (HarperCollins, 2001; Purple House Press 2019) * '' Max Attacks'', illus. Penelope Dullaghan ( Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019) * ''Angel Thieve''s (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2019)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Appelt, Kathi 1954 births American children's writers Newbery Honor winners People from Fayetteville, North Carolina Texas A&M University alumni Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty Living people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American women children's writers American women novelists Novelists from Vermont 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics