About me

Caroline is the award-winning author of many books for children including Gitty and Kvetch, The Day the Books Disappeared, and The Keeper of Stories, which is a Sydney Taylor Honor book and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. She spent her career working across education, everything from teaching brilliant third graders to helping develop federal policy. Caroline also co-hosts the Kidlit Happy Hour podcast alongside author Joanna Ho.

Caroline received her BA and MA from Stanford University and has her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband (Tavita) and four kiddos (Afi, Manu, Leone and Tala). You can learn more at CarolineKusinPritchard.com or on Instagram @carolinepritchardwrites.

And now for the important bits…

What is your superpower?

The strength I gain from my relationships with my sisters: my sisters by birth, marriage and choice!

Latke topping: applesauce or sour cream?

Life is too short to choose just one.

Biggest passion?

Amplifying voices that are not adequately represented in picture books and connecting children with stories that light them up.

Biggest fear?

Clusters of small holes…. look up trypophobia, if you dare!

Favorite writing spot?

The corner desk upstairs at Palo Alto’s Mitchell Park Library.

Spookiest fact?

My mom and I are witches! I was born inside the amniotic sac with my eyes wide open. We learned that a birth this rare would have been punishable by death during the Salem Witch Trials.

Author heroes?

Yuyi Morales, Jacqueline Woodson, Mauric Sendak, Liz Garton Scanlon, Kwame Alexander… and so many more!

Favorite quote?

“Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow! Grow!’” —The Talmud

Favorite Shel Silverstein poem?

“The Voice”

There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
“I feel that this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong.”
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you—just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.

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