Kathryn Lasky (born June 24, 1944) is an American children's writer who also writes for adults under the names Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Her children's books include several Dear America books, The Royal Diaries books, Sugaring Time, The Night Journey, Wolves of the Beyond, and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Her awards include Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature, National Jewish Book Award, and Newbery Honor.
Kathryn Lasky grew up in Indianapolis. She is Jewish and of Russian descent. She is married to Christopher Knight, with whom she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Deer Isle, Maine. She received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in early childhood education from Wheelock College.
She was the 2011 winner of the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature.
She is the author of over one hundred books. Her most notable book series is Guardians of Ga’Hoole, which has more than 8 millions copies printed. Her books have been translated into 19 languages around the world.
Her adult nonfiction work includes the 2011 book, Silk and Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider, a biography of the arachnologist Greta Binford, and the 2017 bestseller Night Witches, the story of Soviet women pilots of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment in WWII.
Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor (England 1544)
Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles (Austria-France 1769)
Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country (France 1553)
Jahanara: Princess of Princesses (India, 1627)
Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven (Japan 1858)
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620
Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903
Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932
A Time for Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C., 1917
Blazing West: The Journal of Augustus Pelletier, Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804
Hope In My Heart: Sofia's Immigrant Diary (also known as Hope In My Heart, Sofia's Ellis Island Diary)
Home at Last: Sofia's Immigrant Diary
An American Spring: Sofia's Immigrant Diary