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Monica Brown
Award-Winning Latina Children’s Author & Literacy Advocate
Monica Brown
Award-Winning Latina Children’s Author & Literacy Advocate
Biography
Monica Brown is the award-winning author of over thirty magical multicultural picture books for children including Waiting for the Biblioburro, Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina, Frida and her Animalitos, Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of/la historia de Dolores Huerta and César Chávez, and the Lola Levine chapter book series (Lola Levine is Not Mean! Lola Levine and the Ballet Scheme, and more). Her picture books are inspired by her Peruvian and Jewish heritage and the desire to bring diverse stories to children. Monica’s books have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. She is the recipient of two Américas Awards, and a Christopher Award for books that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit,” among many others. Her books have been published in a dozen languages and she has been a featured author at The National Book Festival, The Texas Book festival, The Brooklyn Book Festival, and The Tucson Book Festival, and internationally.
She is Professor of English at Northern Arizona University where she teaches Latine, African American, and U.S. multi-ethnic literature. Dr. Brown has formal training in mediation, bias, and bystander intervention and served as the Northern Arizona University Faculty Ombuds from 2020-2023. Most recently Dr. Brown served as Co-PI on two grants to support Indigenous and Latinx students entering STEM graduate programs which also included co-developing and leading an Anti-racist Equity-oriented Community of Practice for STEM educators.
Monica Brown has worked with Reading is Fundamental, The Freedom to Read Foundation, Latinx in Publishing, and Las Musas Writer’s Collective. She has served as visiting specialist for the U.S. State Department via U.S. embassies in Panama, Peru, and Chile, and is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship for Chicano Cultural Literacies.
Speaker Videos
Working with Illustrators
Spanish Language Picture Book Award 2022 Acceptance Speech
Reading as a Child
Valle del Sol Awards Monica Brown 2017
Speech Topics
Taking Flight: The Power and Potential of Latino/a/e Children’s Literature
Monica speaks passionately about writing the books she wanted to see for her own daughters, stories about inspiring Latine heroes in the arts, in literature, in sports, and music, figures such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pelé, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Pablo Neruda, Frida Kahlo, Dolores Huerta, and many others. She also explores how her fictional characters such as Marisol McDonald and Lola Levine, empowered and creative nonconformists, provide young readers a way to understand what it means to be unique and marvelous.
"Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors": Writing Multicultural Books for Children
Monica highlights the importance of the representation of diverse perspectives in children’s literature—all children deserve to see themselves reflected in the literature they encounter. In addition to highlighting the thinking of Rudine Sims Bishop that informs this approach to representation and much of her work as a literature professor, Monica discusses the ways her experience as the daughter of a Peruvian immigrant in a bilingual, bicultural, mixed-raced family of mixed religious heritage shaped her creative path as a writer, sharing insights from her nearly two decades of challenges and achievements.
Lighting the Candle: The Role of Story in Children’s Lives
Written in light, how creative literature can help children find inspiration and joy as they develop problem-solving and self-comfort skills and begin to imagine their lives without limit.
Finding Voice, Inspiring Justice: The Possibilities of Multicultural Children’s Literature
Monica focuses on the connections between using one’s voice and advocating for justice, a common theme across many of her picture book biographies, including Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, Waiting for the Biblioburro, Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of/la historia de Dolores Huerta and César Chávez and the forthcoming books, Singing Justice, Singing Peace on Joan Baez, and Doña Fela’s Dream: The Story of San Juan’s First Female Mayor. This theme is also present in her fictional children’s books that feature Lola Levine and the forthcoming series, The Fintastical Tales of Mari A. Fisch, about a mermaid spy sent above water to find out why land people are polluting the oceans.
Where Art Meets Text: A Workshop/Talk on Writing Picture Books
Monica gives audiences a behind-the-scenes glimpse into writing picture books for children. Drawing from years in the industry, working with agents, editors from large and small presses, and from her work as a mentor to emerging authors, Monica speaks about the nuts and bolts of writing within the genre, about crafting lyrical language pitched at young readers, about writing with an eye toward illustration, about past and emerging trends, and about the business of navigating agents and the publishing market.
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