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 45 magical multicultural picture books for children including Waiting for the Biblioburro, 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 (most recently, Lola Levine and the Dinosaur Scene and Lola Levine Runs out of Steam), Singing Justice, Singing Peace: The Story of Joan Baez, and Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina, which was recently named one of The Atlantic’s 65 Essential Children’s Books. 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.
Monica owes her life to the generosity of strangers. Born with a life-threatening chronic illness, Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) and associated Chronic Liver Disease (CLD), she received a life-saving kidney transplant from a deceased donor in 2018 and a liver transplant in 2024. She is a disability rights advocate and has served on her university’s Commission on Disability Access and Design. 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.
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 & Potential of Children’s Literature
Monica speaks passionately about writing the books she wanted to see for her own daughters, stories about inspiring Hispanic and Latino/a heroes in the arts, in literature, in sports, and music, highlighting figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, Pelé, Joan Baez, Tito Puente, Pablo Neruda, Frida Kahlo, Dolores Huerta, and many others.
In this talk, she 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. In sharing insights from her nearly two decades of challenges and achievements, Monica hopes to inspire others to share their own personal and unique stories with the world.
Disability & Creativity: The Healing Power of Play
Being able to create within the outsized reality of physical pain has surely been one of the gifts of award-winning author Monica Brown’s life, and she has been given many. Her mother, a painter who also suffered from the same chronic illness, modeled resilience, creativity and the power of painting through the pain.
In this talk she reflects on the power of words, art, and play, exploring the ways everyone can tap into creativity to find new possibilities in the face of challenges.
Finding Voice, Inspiring Justice: Transformative Multicultural Stories for Children
Monica speaks passionately about writing the books she wanted to see for her own daughters, stories about inspiring Hispanic and Latino/a heroes in the arts, in literature. All children deserve to see themselves reflected in the literature they encounter.
Monica focuses on stories of people who used their voices in support of justice and communities of care, 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 Singing Justice, Singing Peace: The Story of Joan Baez. This theme is also present in her fictional children’s books, including, The Fintastical Tales of Mari A. Fisch, a chapter book series about a mermaid spy sent above water to find out why land people are polluting the oceans.
The Generosity of Strangers: Disability, Chronic Illness & Communities of Care
Monica owes her life to the generosity of strangers. Born with a life-threatening chronic illness, Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) and associated Chronic Liver Disease (CLD), she received a life-saving kidney transplant from a deceased donor in 2018. After her CLD progressed, Monica received a life-giving liver transplant in 2024. These gifts of life have already given her eight beautiful years of life, being a mother, wife, sister, auntie, friend, and now, grandmother, enabling her to continue her work as a professor and author of many books for children. In this talk, she reflects on the generosity of strangers, the impact of altruism, and how we can all inspire communities of care beyond any one individual.
Writing Mighty Girls
In this talk, Monica speaks about the transformational power of stories and how her fictional characters such as Marisol McDonald and Lola Levine--who are empowered and creative nonconformists—impact young readers, affirming the mightiness of girls and what it means to be unique and marvelous. These strong and intrepid characters have influenced thousands of readers and helped them find their own personal voices. how young readers need these models for girlhood more than ever before.
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