Visiting Authors

List of 8 items.

  • Brian Collier

    Visiting 3rd-6th Grade
    Bryan Collier grew up in Maryland, the youngest of six children. His interest in art was always encouraged both at home and at school. He began to develop a unique style of painting that incorporated both watercolors and collage. While attending school in New York, Bryan began to volunteer at the Harlem Horizon Studio and Harlem Hospital Center with a program that provides working space and materials for self-taught artists in the community. He went on to become the Program Director, a position he held for 12 years. Bryan still works with the program in Harlem as a volunteer, feeling a deep sense of responsibility to be a positive role model for kids.
  • Hope Anita Smith

    Visiting EC1-6th Grade
    On her journey to becoming an award-winning author, Hope Anita Smith has been a storyteller, teacher, photographer, artist and a singer. Her first book, 'The Way a Door Closes' won several awards, which she followed up with 'Keeping the Night Watch' and 'Instructions on How to Lose a Mother.' Her company, INKED WELL WORDS, has her teaching writing "wordshops" to writers of every age. She encourages her students to find their 'voice' using paint chips, random words, found objects, magazine pictures.
  • K-Fai Steele

    Visiting Toddlers-3rd Grade
    K-Fai Steele is an artist based in San Francisco. Some of her many interesting jobs and experiences include installing The Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, joining an artist collective living in an old coffin factory in Philadelphia, building archival enclosures for very old books in a library, launching maker-space programs for urban libraries, and advising educators nationally on ways that libraries and museums can be places of learning for youth. She currently works for the National Writing Project and is a recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Memorial Fellowship. 'A Normal Pig' is her debut as an author-illustrator.
  • Matthew Cherry

    Visiting Toddlers-3rd Grade
    Chicago native Matthew A. Cherry is a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker. In 2007 he retired and moved to LA to pursue a career in entertainment. Matthew is the creator of the short film Hair Love, which was released as a picture book earlier this year. The story centers around the relationship between an African-American father, Stephen, his daughter, Zuri and her hair. This story was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects, and also wanting to promote hair love amongst young men and women of color.
     
  • Gianna Marino

    Visiting EC1-1st Grade
    Gianna Marino was born in San Francisco and spent her early years galloping horses through Golden Gate Park. She has apprenticed with a muralist, worked as a jewelry designer, and as a product designer. Gianna has explored many corners of the world, from Africa and Asia to the South Pacific and Europe, to crewing on sailboats in the high seas. After designing toys for children she began painting, illustrating and writing books. Her children's books include Zoopa: An Animal Alphabet, One Too Many, Meet Me at the Moon, Too Tall Houses, Following Papa's Song and Night Animals. With more to come! 
  • Matt Phelan

    Visiting 4th-6th Grade
    Matt Phelan is the creator of graphic novels Snow White, The Storm in the Barn, Bluffton, and Around the World, and the picture book Druthers. He is also the illustrator of many books including Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall, Marilyn’s Monster by Michelle Knudsen, Xander’s Panda Party by Linda Sue Park, and The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. Matt has been nominated for five Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, including best writer/artist and best new graphic album. In 2014, Matt was awarded the Free Library of Philadelphia/Drexel University Children's Literature Citation. His most recent books are Pignic and the middle-grade adventure novel Knights vs. Dinosaurs. 
  • Kwame Alexander

    Visiting 3rd-6th Grades
    Kwame Alexander is the New York Times Bestselling author of 32 books, including THE UNDEFEATED, HOW TO READ A BOOK, THE WRITE THING,  SWING, REBOUND, which was shortlisted for prestigious Carnegie Medal, and, his NEWBERY medal-winning middle grade novel, THE CROSSOVER. He’s also the Founding Editor of VERSIFY, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that aims to Change the World One Word at a Time.
  • Sharon Robinson

    Visiting 4th-6th Grades
    Ms. Robinson is an award-winning children’s book author. She has published several widely praised books about her father, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, including Jackie’s Nine:  Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By and Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America. Sharon’s other books include Safe at Home and Slam Dunk!, Under The Same Sun, (2014 Parents’ Choice Award Winner), and The Hero Two Doors Down (2017 Finalist 48th NAACP Image Awards; 2017-18 Sunshine State Award Winner, 2019 Nutmeg Book Award). Her forthcoming book, Child of the Dream, a timely new memoir which explores Robinson’s coming to grips with the struggle for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement.
The Center for Early Education, a socio-economically and culturally diverse independent school for children, toddlers through grade six, strives to graduate students who are joyful, resilient, lifelong learners. The Center embraces a philosophy of education that combines a nurturing, inclusive learning environment with an increasingly challenging academic program that addresses the developmental needs of each child.