Thanks for stopping by! If you’re looking to practice saying my name, Teaching Books has got you covered. (With a lot more resources over there too!)

In short: I was the ‘new kid’ at school many times over, in more than one country, and currently live with my family in NYC, where I love walking and working on crafts in many forms. I used to keep a knitting and craft blog; I may reboot it one day!

BIO

OLUGBEMISOLA RHUDAY-PERKOVICH is the author of several children’s books, including Makeda Makes A Birthday Treat, Operation Sisterhood, an IndieNext Pick, It Doesn’t Take A Genius, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, 8th Grade Superzero (an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association (IRA), and a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies and CBC), Two Naomis, co-authored with Audrey Vernick, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight For Our Future, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and YALSA nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction, as well as the picture book Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins (a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies and CBC), and Mae Makes A Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker, a RISE Feminist Book Project winner. Her recent release: The Sun Does Shine: An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice (Young Readers Edition); it was a YALSA nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction, a School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, with Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin.

She is the editor of the We Need Diverse Books anthology The Hero Next Door, and has contributed to several collections, including We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices (edited by Cheryl and Wade Hudson of Just Us Books), The Journey Is Everything: Teaching Essays That Students Want to Write for People Who Want to Read Them, edited by Katherine Bomer; and Imagine It Better: Visions of What School Might Be, edited by Luke Reynolds.

She’s written for various outlets, including PBS Parents, Read Brightly, American Baby, Healthy Kids, and some of her childhood favorite hip hop fanzines, like the iconic Right On! Magazine.

Olugbemisola has worked extensively in youth development and education, and was twice awarded a public service fellowship by the Echoing Green Foundation for her work on a creative arts and literacy project with adolescent girls. Olugbemisola lives with her family in New York City where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep. IG: @olugbemisolarhudayperkovich.

Olugbemisola is a former member of The Brown Bookshelf, a Web site dedicated to amplifying Black and Brown voices in children’s literature, and a former We Need Diverse Books Board member.

Literary Agent: The phenomenal Marietta Zacker.

Film/TV Rights: The marvelous Mary Pender, UTA.