Deborah Hopkinson

Deborah Hopkinson is an American writer of over seventy children's books, primarily historical fiction, nonfiction and picture books.

WWW Official Site

Personal life and education

Hopkinson was born February 4, 1952, in Lowell, Massachusetts to Russell W. and Gloria D. Hopkinson.
She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1973 and a Master of Arts from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1978.
Hopkinson is married to Andrew D. Thomas, and the couple has two children: Rebekah and Dimitri. She presently lives near Portland, Oregon.

Career

Before writing full-time, Hopkinson worked as a philanthropic fundraiser with Oregon State University, Whitman College, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. From 1981 to 1984, she served as the marketing director for the Manoa Valley Theater in Honolulu. Afterwards, she worked as a development director at the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, then the East–West Center in Honolulu. For the next decade, she was the director of grants at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, after which she served as the director for foundation relations for the Oregon State University Foundation in Corvallis, Oregon.
Hopkinson published her first book in 1993 and has since published more than 70 books for children, including the Sibert Honor title, Titanic: Voices from the Disaster.

Awards and honors

Twenty-three of Hopkinson's books are Junior Library Guild selections:
In 2012, Titanic: Voices from the Disaster was named one of the best nonfiction children's books of the year by The Horn Book Magazine.
In 2017, Booklist included Steamboat School on their "Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth" list.
In 2019, Carter Reads the Newspaper was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library and the New York Public Library.
The Story of a Story was included in the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2021.

Year	Title	Award	Result	Ref.
1994	Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt	International Reading Association Book Award for Younger Readers	Winner
2000	'	ALSC Notable Children's Book	Selection
2000	'	Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text	Winner
2000	'	Jane Addams Children's Book Award: Picture Book	Honor
2004	Girl Wonder	Jane Addams Children's Book Award: Picture Book	Honor
2004	Shutting Out the Sky	Jane Addams Children's Book Award: Book for Older Children	Honor
2004	Shutting Out the Sky	NCTE Orbis Pictus Award	Honor
2005	Apples to Oregon	ALSC Notable Children's Book	Selection
2005	Apples to Oregon	Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text	Winner
2005	Apples to Oregon	Spur Award for Storyteller	Winner
2006	Sky Boys	Boston Globe–Horn Book Award	Honor
2007	Up Before Daybreak	Carter G. Woodson Book Award: Middle Level	Honor
2008	Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek	Cybils Award for Fiction Picture book	Finalist
2009	Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek	ALSC Notable Children's Book	Selection
2009–2010	Keep On!	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Winner
2012	Titanic: Voices From the Disaster	Cybils Award for Nonfiction Middle Grade & Young Adult	Finalist
2012	Titanic: Voices From the Disaster	Oregon Spirit Award for Nonfiction	Honor
2013	'	Oregon Spirit Award for Middle Reader	Winner
2013	Knit Your Bit	Oregon Spirit Award for Picture Books	Winner
2013	Annie and Helen	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2013	'	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Nominee
2013	Titanic: Voices from the Disaster	ALSC Notable Children's Book	Selection
2013	Titanic: Voices from the Disaster	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Nominee
2013	Titanic: Voices from the Disaster	Sibert Medal	Honor
2013	Titanic: Voices from the Disaster	YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction	Finalist
2014	Knit Your Bit	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2015	Courage & Defiance	Oregon Spirit Award for Nonfiction	Winner
2015	'	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2016	Courage & Defiance	NCTE Orbis Pictus Award	Recommended
2016	Dive!	Oregon Spirit Award for Nonfiction	Honor
2016	'	Mathical	Honor
2016	Steamboat School	Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth	Selection
2017	'	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Nominee
2017	'	NCTE Charlotte Huck Award	Recommended
2017	Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Nominee
2017	Courage & Defiance	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Finalist
2017	Dive!	NCTE Orbis Pictus Award	Recommended
2017	Follow the Moon Home	Green Book Award for Picture Book	Winner
2017	Steamboat School	Association for Library Service to Children Notable Children's Book	Selection
2017	Steamboat School	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2017	Steamboat School	Jane Addams Children's Book Award: Book for Younger Children	Winner
2018	Dive!	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Nominee
2018	Independence Cake	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Nominee
2018	'	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Nominee
2019	Carter Reads the Newspaper	Oregon Spirit Award for Nonfiction	Honor
2019	D-Day: The World War II Invasion That Changed History	YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction	Nominee
2019	Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2020	Butterflies Belong Here	Oregon Spirit Award for Picture Books	Honor
2020	Carter Reads the Newspaper	ALSC Notable Children's Book	Selection
2020	Carter Reads the Newspaper	Carter G. Woodson Book Award: Elementary Level	Honor
2020	Carter Reads the Newspaper	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2020	How I Became a Spy	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Winner
2020	Under the Bodhi Tree	Independent Publisher Bronze Award for Children’s Picture Books
2021	Butterflies Belong Here	Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature	Finalist
2021	Butterflies Belong Here	Green Book Award	Winner
2021	We Had to Be Brave	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Finalist
2021	We Had to Be Brave	NCTE Orbis Pictus Award	Recommended
2022	We Must Not Forget	Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature	Finalist
2022	We Must Not Forget	NCTE Orbis Pictus Award	Recommended

Selected books

Picture books

Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Atheneum, 2001.

Early Readers

Birdie’s Lighthouse, illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root
Maria’s Comet, illustrated by Deborah Lanino
A Band of Angels, illustrated by Raúl Colón
Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings, illustrated by Terry Widener
Apples to Oregon: Being the True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries Across the Plains, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall Thin Tale, illustrated by John Hendrix
Annie and Helen, illustrated by Raúl Colón
Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story, illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia
Philippe Cousteau illustrated by Meilo So
Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig, illustrated by Charlotte Voake
A Letter to My Teacher, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Under the Bodhi Tree: A Story of the Buddha, illustrated by Kailey Whitman
Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen: The Story of Six Novels, Three Notebooks, a Writing Box, and One Clever Girl, illustrated by Qin Leng
Butterflies Belong Here: A Story of One Idea, Thirty Kids, and a World of Butterflies, illustrated by Meilo So
My Little Golden Book about Dolly Parton
My Little Golden Book about Betty White
The Story of a Story, illustrated by Hadley Hooper
Cinderella and a Mouse Called Fred, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
''Happy Earth Day!''

Middle Grade

Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, A Shirtwaist Worker, New York City, 1909
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel
Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark
A Bandit’s Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket
Dive!: World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific
D‑Day: The World War II Invasion That Changed History
The Deadliest Diseases Then and Now
We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance
The Deadliest Fires Then and Now
''The Deadliest Hurricanes Then and Now''