Susan Campbell Bartoletti, PhD

The author of more than a dozen books, Susan Bartoletti specializes in writing for children. Her publications include nonfiction titles such as They Called Themselves the KKK (Houghton 2010) and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Scholastic 2005); fiction titles such as The Boy Who Dared (Scholastic 2008); and picturebooks such as Naamah and the Ark at Night, illustrated by Holly Meade (Candlewick 2011). Her awards include the Newbery Honor, the Sibert Award for Most Distinguished Informational Book, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Distinguished Nonfiction, the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Honor, and the Washington Post Children's Book Guild Award for her body of nonfiction work. A former eighth-grade English teacher for eighteen years, she lives in Moscow, Pennsylvania.

Dan Hade, PhD

Dr. Hade is an associate professor of language and literacy education, specializing in literature for children and young adults. He has lectured across the country and in Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and South Korea. He is a former editor of the Journal of Children's Literature and serves on the editorial board of The Lion and the Unicorn. Prior to university teaching, he worked in schools in Iowa and Minnesota, where he taught fifth grade and was an elementary school library/media specialist, a gifted and talented teacher, and a junior high school basketball and track and field coach. His current research is children's literature, American culture, and national identity.

Elisa Hopkins, PhD

Dr. Hopkins is an assistant professor of education specializing in literature for children and teaches full time in the World Campus children's literature program. She joined the faculty at Penn State in 2007. Prior to her doctoral work at Penn State, she taught English, served as an academic adviser, and directed a reading/writing center at North Florida Community College in Madison, Florida. As a graduate teaching assistant at Florida State University, she taught freshman English composition and tutored in the reading/writing center. She has also worked as a technical writer for software development companies. Her research interests include multicultural poetry for children and the development of critical consciousness.

Marek Oziewicz, PhD

Dr. Oziewicz is adjunct assistant professor of education, teaching Penn State online courses from Poland. At his home institution, the University of Wroclaw, he is professor of literature, head of American Program, and director of the Center for Young People's Literature and Culture. Recipient of the Fulbright (2005) and Kosciuszko Foundation (2006) scholarships, he has published extensively on children's and YA fantasy literature—his main field of expertise. Dr. Oziewicz's research interests include the role of myth-making in fantasy and YA fiction, literary representations of justice, and environmental ethics. His recent book, winner of the 2010 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in General Myth and Fantasy Studies, is One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card (McFarland 2008).

Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, PhD

Associate professor of education, language, and literacy education, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh's (McGill University) research interests include historical children's literature and culture, children's and youth popular culture, comparative media literacy and girlhood studies. A literary historian working with theoretical lenses drawn from cultural studies, children's studies, and feminist studies, she has co-edited and co-authored several books. Her most recent book is Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia (2007). She is a founding editor of a new journal called Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. She has a joint appointment with the Department of Women's Studies.

Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, PhD

Dr. Yenika-Agbaw is associate professor of language and literacy education specializing in children's and adolescent literature. Most recently she served as a faculty member at Bloomsburg University in the English department where she taught literature and composition courses, coordinated the secondary English program and was professor of English education. She has served on several award committees including Children's Literature Association's Phoenix Award, International Reading Association's Poetry and Prose Award, and NCTE/IRA's Notable Books for a Global Society Award.

Yenika-Agbaw is an assistant editor of Sankofa: Journal of African Children's and Young Adult Literature, and has also served or is currently serving on the editorial boards of Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Language Arts. Her research interests include cultural studies with emphases on African/African diaspora literature for children/adolescents, multicultural literature, and adolescent and critical literacies. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, and has authored or co-edited several books, including Representing Africa in Children’s Literature: Old and New Ways of Seeing (Routledge, 2008), and African and African American Children's and Adolescent Literature in the Classroom: A Critical Guide (Peter Lang, 2011).