Courtney Baker has also authored a number of early-reader children’s books. She began her career as an editorial assistant to the award-winning editor and author Grace Maccarone in the Cartwheel Books division of Scholastic Press.
While at Cartwheel books, she worked with noted authors and illustrators such as Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick, David McPhail, Kate McMullan, Ken Wilson-Max, and Norman Bridwell—creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog. She was selected by the group’s publisher, Bernette Ford, to attend the Children’s Book Council editorial institute in 1998. Her exposure to the industry and apprenticeship at Scholastic instilled a keen attention to the work of language—something she continues to utilize in her collegiate instruction (including advising a terrific senior thesis on bodily transformation in picture books) and in her own approach to writing.
With the basic principles of young children’s reading processes and narrative comprehension under her belt and an enduring commitment to education at all levels, she is excited to return to this important field, and is currently working on a time-traveling Afro-futurist series for young readers.
Purchase Courtney Baker’s children’s book, Let’s Read about Martin Luther King Jr.!