About the Founder

Hi Everyone,

I'm Rita Lorraine Hubbard, a native Tennesseean born and raised in Chattanooga. I've been a writer for as far back as I can remember,. It has always been my dream to write books about people or characters I find touching, funny, inspirational, or so off-the-cuff that they deserve a story of their own.

I am a former special education teacher of academically and developmentally challenged students, and am currently a full-time children's writer, book blogger and freelance editor. My newest picture book, The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read (Random House) debuted as the No. 1 Picture Book in Women's Biographies and Children's American History. It has received STARRED REVIEWS from Kirkus, Booklist, Publisher's Weekly and School Library Journal, and has been translated into Spanish and Complex Chinese. It has received a Crystal KITE AWARD from SCBWI, and is up for the Texas Bluebonnet BlueStem award. It is a Ohio Choose to Read Acknowledgment, and is the 2021 winner of the Comstock Children's Read-Aloud Award. It has also received a great review by The Wall Street Journal. Scroll through the images below to see some of the awards and mentions.

My very first picture book, Hammering for Freedom: The William Lewis Story (Lee and Low) debuted on September 24, 2018. It is a School Library Journal selection and received positive Kirkus and Horn Book reviews. I also penned African Americans of Chattanooga: A History of Unsung Heroes, which earned the 2014 Eastern Tennessee Historical Preservation Award, and I earned the 2014 SCBWI Letter of Merit for an unpublished multicultural novel. I am the author of several educational books for teens, and I occasionally review books for The New York Journal of Books.

Again, I have mentioned some of my books and appearances in the compilation below. Thanks for visiting!