Tonya Bolden is a critically acclaimed award-winning author, co-author and editor of more than two dozen books for young people. They include FINDING FAMILY, which received two starred reviews and was a Kirkus Reviews and Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; MARITCHA: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, a Coretta Scott King honor book and James Madison Book Award winner; MLK: Journey of a King, winner of a National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children; and EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty, an ALSC Notable Children's Book, CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, and winner of the NCSS Carter G. Woodson Middle Level Book Award. Tonya also received the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC's Nonfiction Award.

A Princeton University magna cum laude baccalaureate with a master's degree from Columbia University, Tonya lives in New York City.

Books by Tonya Bolden

Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Tonya Bolden - African American Interest, Children's, Children's 9-12, Children's Nonfiction, History, Nonfiction, Prejudice , Racism

Inventing Victoria

by Tonya Bolden - Fiction, Historical Fiction

As a young black woman in 1880s Savannah, Essie's dreams are very much at odds with her reality. Ashamed of her beginnings, but unwilling to accept the path currently available to her, Essie is trapped between the life she has and the life she wants. Until she meets a lady named Dorcas Vashon, the richest and most cultured black woman she's ever encountered. When Dorcas makes Essie an offer she can't refuse, she becomes Victoria. Transformed by a fine wardrobe, a classic education and the rules of etiquette, Victoria is soon welcomed in the upper echelons of black society in Washington, D.C. But when the life she desires is finally within her grasp, Victoria must decide how much of herself she is truly willing to surrender.

We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide

by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden - History, Nonfiction, Prejudice , Social Issues, Young Adult 13+

Crossing Ebenezer Creek

by Tonya Bolden - Family, Historical Fiction, Young Adult 14+

Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man

by Tonya Bolden - African American Interest, Children's 10-14, Children's Nonfiction, History, Nonfiction, Prejudice , Racism, Social Issues

Pathfinders: The Journeys of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls

by Tonya Bolden - Children's 6-9, History, Nonfiction