Lesa Cline-Ransome (née Cline) is an American author of

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

s and middle grade novels, best known for her

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

-nominated picture book biography of

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, us ...

, '' Before She Was Harriet'' and her middle grade novel ''Finding Langston''.

Personal life

Cline-Ransome grew up in Malden,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Both her parents are nurses and she is the youngest of three siblings. She decided she wanted to become a writer during middle school and completed a summer workshop for teens with an interest in journalism at

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. With 7,560 students on all campuses, it is the List of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston, tenth-largest university ...

. She ultimately decided that journalism wasn't for her and stopped wanting to become a writer until she received encouragement from her professors while studying at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. There, she worked for the college paper and took on a job in advertising. She didn't pick up her interest in writing until she married her husband, James Ransome, who encouraged her to write books for children while he was working on illustrating his own first novel. She researched for nearly a year after the birth of her first child before an editor at

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 ...

took a chance on what would later become her first published picture book, ''Satchel Paige''. She lives with her husband and four children in Rhinebeck,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Works

Middle grade * ''Finding Langston'' (Holiday House, 2018) * ''Leaving Lymon'' (Holiday House, 2020) * ''Being Clem'' (Holiday House, 2021) Picture books * ''Bug Club Pro Guided Year 6 The Road to Freedom (Bug Club Guided)'' (Pearson Education Limited, 2017) * ''Bug Club Comprehension Y6 The Road to Freedom 12-pack'' ''(Bug Club Guided)'' (Pearson Education Limited, 2017) * illustrated by James E. Ransome ** ''Quilt Alphabet'' (Holiday House, 2002) ** ''Quilt Counting'' (Chronicle Books, 2002) ** ''Satchel Paige'' (Aladdin, 2003) ** ''Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist'' ( Atheneum, 2003) ** ''Young Pele: Soccer's First Star'' ( Schwartz & Wade, 2007) ** ''Helen Keller: The World in Her Heart'' (

Collins Publishers HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is h ...

, 2008) ** ''Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George'' (Schwartz & Wade, 2011) ** ''Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass'' (Simon & Schuster, 2012) ** ''Light in the Darkness: A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret'' ( Jump at the Sun, 2013) ** ''Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black-And-White Jazz Band in History'' (Holiday House, 2014) ** ''My Story, My Dance: Robert Battle's Journey to Alvin Aile''y ( Paula Wiseman Books, 2015) ** ''Freedom's School'' (Paula Wiseman Books, 2015) ** ''Just a Lucky So and So: The Story of Louis Armstrong'' (Holiday House, 2016) ** ''Before She Was Harriet'' (Holiday House, 2017) ** ''Germs: Sickness, Bad Breath, and Pizza'' (Henry Holt, 2017) ** ''Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams'' (Paula Wiseman Books, 2018) * illustrated by G. Brian Karas ** ''Whale Trails, Before and Now'', illustrated by G. Brian Karas ( Henry Holt, 2015) * illustrated by Raul Colon ** ''Counting the Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician'' (Paula Wiseman Books, 2019)

Awards

Nominated * 2018 NAACP Image Award in Outstanding Literary Work - Children's category for Before She Was Harriet Won *2025 Newbery Honor for ''One Big Open Sky'' *2025 Coretta Scott King Honor for "One Big Open Sky" *2025 Jane Addams Picture Book Award for “They Call me Teach: Lessons in Freedom” * 2018

Jane Addams Children's Book Award The Jane Addams Children's Book Award is given annually to a children's literature, children's book published the preceding year that advances the causes of peace and social equality. The awards have been presented annually since 1953. They were ...

for Younger Children Honor for ''Before She Was Harriet'' * 2019

Coretta Scott King Book Award The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Award Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes ou ...

Author Honor for ''Finding Langston'' * 2019

Charlotte Zolotow Award The Charlotte Zolotow Award is an American literary award presented annually for outstanding writing in a picture book published in the United States during the preceding year. By contrast, the Caldecott Medal is for outstanding illustration in a ...

for Highly Commended Title for ''Before She Was Harriet'' *2021 Mathical Honors for ''Counting the Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cline-Ransome, Lesa Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American writers Pratt Institute alumni People from Malden, Massachusetts 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century American writers Writers from Massachusetts American children's writers American women children's writers