Around the World in 50 Names
Make a geography lesson come to life!
Connect book creators with names from all over the world with our Author Name Pronunciation Guide.
Share these short audio clips with your students:
- Hear the voices of authors and illustrators from around the world.
- Learn the correct pronunciations for names.
- Make a natural bridge from a geography lesson to a literature study, and vice versa.
Below is a list of 50 authors/illustrators and the places with which their names are associated. The origins of these names take us around the world.
Africa
- Baba Wagué Diakité (Mali)
- Kekla Magoon (Cameroon)
- Tololwa M. Mollel (Tanzania)
- Ifeoma Onyefulu (Nigeria)
- Spelile Rivas (Zimbabwe)
Asia
- Varsha Bajaj (India)
- Ibtisam Barakat (Palestine)
- Giora Carmi (Israel)
- Mina Javaherbin (Iran)
- Hena Khan (Pakistan)
- Thanhhà Lại (Vietnam)
- Linda Sue Park (Korea)
- Mitali Perkins (Bangladesh)
- Randy Ribay (Philippines)
- Mariko Tamaki (Japan)
- Ed Young (China)
Europe
- David Almond (England)
- Brian Lies (Luxembourg)
- Rocio Bonilla (Spain)
- Adrian Fogelin (Sweden)
- Dennis Foon (Ukraine)
- Cornelia Funke (Germany)
- Charles Ghigna (Italy)
- Joan Holub (Czech Republic)
- Polly Horvath (Hungary)
- Brian Jacques (France)
- Lise Lunge-Larsen (Norway)
- Megan McDonald (Ireland)
- Janet McNaughton (Scotland)
- Naomi Shihab Nye (Denmark/Norway)
- Lisa Papademetriou (Greece)
- Margriet Ruurs (The Netherlands)
- Ruta Sepetys (Lithuania)
- Jon Scieszka (Russia)
- Janet Tashjian (Armenia)
- M.O. Yuksel (Türkiye)
North America
- Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
- David Bouchard (French Canada [Métis])
- Ashley Bryan (Antigua and Barbuda)
- Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)
- Steph Littlebird (United States/Oregon)
- Yuyi Morales (Mexico)
- Chris K. Soentpiet (United States/Hawaii/Korea)
Oceania
- Terry Rose Baynton (New Zealand)
- Aunty Joy Murphy (Australia)
- Shaun Tan (Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, China)
South America
- Claudia Dávila (Chile)
- Ben Mikaelson (Bolivia)
- Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Jamaica, Nigeria, Croatia)
- Leyla Torres (Colombia)
