Children's
Kenneth Kraegel
Kenneth Kraegel grew up in Mishawaka, Indiana, and graduated from Mishawaka High School, where his imagination first sprang to life, nurtured by his friends, teachers, and the broader community. While attending college out of state to pursue a degree in theology, he spent his summers in his hometown, continuing to share the music, art, and writing that fueled his creative energy.
Kenneth’s volunteer work and early professional career took him across the country and around the world. After graduation, he volunteered at an agricultural school in Honduras, helped refugees find jobs in Chicago, contributed to an NGO in Uganda, worked on construction sites in Wyoming, and labored on vegetable farms throughout the Midwest. As a writer, he has received numerous honors, including the New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of the Year designation, the Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Award, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book recognition.
He now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife and family.
2026 Children's Winner: Something Good
Something Good is a story in which a girl wakes one morning to find a chicken on her head and a gift of magic socks which turn her day around.
2024 Children's Shortlist: Mushroom Lullaby
In gentle rhyme, this spare and whimsical picture book introduces little readers to all sorts of wonderful mushrooms: ones that grow up high and ones that never stay dry, ones that grow in a park and ones that glow in the dark, and even one made just for them! When readers discover their mushroom, they climb up the soft mushroom stair, read a book in a plush mushroom chair, and finally crawl into their warm mushroom bed where they dream sweet mushroom dreams.
2022 Children's Shortlist: This Is a Book of Shapes
What begins as a standard book about everyone’s geometric favorites soon defies expectations with a series of funny and imaginative twists.
