NHBF Author: Valerie Bolling

Valerie Bolling is an award-winning author/educator who is passionate about creating stories in which all children can feel seen, heard, valued, and validated. She’s the author of eight picture books, including LET’S DANCE! (SCBWI Crystal Kite Award winner); TOGETHER WE SWIM (Kirkus Prize Finalist); I SEE COLOR (Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection); A FLEA FOR JUSTICE: MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN STANDS UP FOR CHANGE (Notable Social Studies Trade Book Selection); and a Scholastic Acorn early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS. Sharing her books with children and inspiring them to write their own stories brings Valerie immense joy. Valerie lives in Connecticut with her husband where they enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood and LeUyen Pham (Clarion Books, 2024)

There once was a man who loved his tidy home and who didn’t like animals. Then, one day, a cat appeared. The man and the cat both liked napping and watching the rain and eating dinner precisely at six.

Well, maybe this one animal could stay.

Next came a dog . . .

This bighearted and funny tale with delightful artwork from Caldecott Honor artist LeUyen Pham celebrates the joy of embracing new perspectives.

About Deborah Underwood

Deborah Underwood is the author of  New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book, The Loud Book, Here Comes the Easter Cat and Outside In. Deborah grew up in Walla Walla, Washington, but now lives in Northern California with her cat Bella. Her website is: https://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/

About LeUyen Pham

LeUyen Pham is a children's book illustrator and author who was born in Saigon, South Vietnam. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with her artist husband Alexandre Puvilland, two children and cat named Sardine. She has illustrated and written more than 120 books, including Outside Inside, Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn and Lunar New Year Love Story. Her website is: https://leuyenpham.com/

Activities & Links

• Check out this Read Aloud at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBoSbmAFiDU&t=2s
• Here's an interview with Deborah Underwood, author of "The Man Who Didn't Like Animals": https://www.mariacmarshall.com/single-post/2019/10/28/the-picture-book-buzz-interview-with-deborah-underwood
• Here's an interview with LeUyen Pham, illustrator of "The Man Who Didn't Like Animals" about her illustration process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSm9TVOk1E
• Creative Writing & Drawing exercise: Have children write or draw about an animal they love and what they would share with it.
• Reflection exercise: Have children talk about a time they changed their minds about something new (food, a book, a place), mirroring the main character's growth.
• Here's a link to the song "Old MacDonald" that this book is based off of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQk_sds7Ek 

Suggestions for Further Reading

• Check out the other 2026 Ladybug Longlist titles featuring Animals at: https://nhbookcenter.blogspot.com/2026/01/ladybug-longlist-animals.html
• Don't Worry Wuddles by Lita Judge, a 2024 Ladybug Longlist title and Llama Destroys the World by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox, a 2022 Ladybug Longlist title are both fun books about animals that you can count on. 
• For more books by Deborah Underwood, consider Outside In, a 2021 Ladybug Nominee Finalist title, or Interstellar Cinderella, a 2016 Ladybug Nominee Finalist title. 

This is the last of nine titles nominated for the 2026 Ladybug Picture Book Award. We will issue a pdf voters guide featuring all the titles by Labor Day.

NHBF Author: Jenna Blum

Jenna Blum is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of four novels, including  Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, and The Lost Family; memoir Woodrow on the Bench; audiocourse “The Author at Work: The Art of Writing Fiction” and WWII podcast The Key of Love. Jenna’s latest novel and first thriller, Murder Your Darlings, came out in January 2026 and is in development for film with Rohm Feifer Entertainment. 

Jenna is based in downtown Boston, where she’s the proud human of her black Lab Henry Higgins.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Winsome Bingham

Winsome Bingham is an award-winning author of books for children including ON FRIDAYS, illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Jason Griffin. Her books have been chosen as JLG Selections, NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Recommended Book, Notable Social Studies Trade Book, Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title, Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, and multiple libraries' end of the year list. Her debut, SOUL FOOD SUNDAY, was a New York Times Best Book of the Year and the winner of the Connecticut Book Award. Her books center on joy, community, family, empathy, and compassion.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Susan Donovan Bernhard

Susan Donovan Bernhard is a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship recipient, a graduate of the GrubStreet Novel Incubator, and a 2019 Tennessee Williams Scholar to the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her fiction has appeared in Little Bird Stories and Solstice Lit Mag and she is a contributor to Cognoscenti and the blog Dead Darlings. Her debut novel WINTER LOON was an Amazon Bestseller and won the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Prize for Fiction. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, Susan was born and raised in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana, is a graduate of the University of Maryland, and lives and writes in Massachusetts. WESTERLY is her second novel.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Rebecca Bendheim

Rebecca Bendheim is a teacher, poet, and author of the middle grade novel WHEN YOU’RE BRAVE ENOUGH and the poetry collection COMING OUT PARTY. She types poems around the country with the Typewriter Rodeo poetry troupe and has recorded radio poems for NPR. A graduate of Vanderbilt University and Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in Writing for Children, she now lives in Maine with her wife, an orange cat, and a chorgi (chihuahua-corgi) puppy.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Diane Les Becquets

Diane Les Becquets is the author of Breaking Wild and The Last Woman in the Forest. Breaking Wild, an Indie Next Pick and a national bestseller, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist, and was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. It was the recipient of the Colorado Book Award in Fiction, the New Hampshire Outstanding Work of Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Award in Fiction.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.