CU Children's Authors

CU Children's Authors Good Books Just Kids

Local children’s book authors & illustrators

Meet the people writing or drawing pictures for children’s books in and close to Champaign-Urbana. Click on the pictures to visit their websites or other sites that tell you more about them.

Want to write children’s books yourself? See our tips from author Alice McGinty.

Raymond Bial

Urbana, Illinois

Ray Bial is well known for his photo essays on subjects that have great appeal for children and adults alike, including dirt.

Janice Harrington

Champaign, Illinois

Janice Harrington is a storyteller and poet as well as the author of Going North, which was awarded the 2005 Ezra Jack Keats Award. (Sorry, no website for Janice Harrington)

Betsy Hearne has published picture books, poetry, and fiction for young people, as well as books about folklore and children‘s literature. She has also taught children‘s literature and storytelling at the Graduate School for Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois.