Lesa Cline-Ransome’s first book was the biography SATCHEL PAIGE, an ALA Notable Book and a Bank Street College “Best Children’s Book of the Year.” She later created a number of picture books including QUILT ALPHABET; MAJOR TAYLOR: CHAMPION CYCLIST; YOUNG PELE; WORDS SET ME FREE; MY STORY, MY DANCE; and GERMS: FACT AND FICTION, FRIENDS AND FOES. Her verse biography of Harriet Tubman, BEFORE SHE WAS HARRIET, was nominated for an NAACP image award and received a Coretta Scott King Honor for Illustration. Her newest picture book biography, GAME CHANGERS: THE STORY OF VENUS AND SERENA WILLIAMS, is an ALA Notable book. FINDING LANGSTON, her debut middle-grade novel, is a 2018 School Library Journal Best Book, Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Novel, New York Public Library Best Book of 2018, and the 2019 winner of the Scott O’Dell award for Historical Nonfiction and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor book.

Lesa’s books have received numerous honors and awards, including NAACP Awards, Kirkus Best Books, ALA Notable, CBC Choice Awards, two Top 10 Sports Books for Youth, a Christopher Award, Jane Addams Award and an Orbis Pictus Recommended Book.

She lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband, and frequent collaborator, illustrator James E. Ransome.

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