John Micklos Jr. Writer

John Micklos, Jr. is the author of more than 60 books for children and young adult readers. His books include picture books, poetry books, and nonfiction titles spanning a wide range of topics and age ranges.

John’s newest picture book, Sad, Mad, Glad: A Day Full of Feelings (Penguin Workshop, 2026), comes out May 5! Look for it in bookstores or preorder it from Penguin or on Amazon. Sad, Mad, Glad is illustrated by Lilibeth Jimenez and includes an afterword by noted educator Dr. Tia Kim.

John’s other picture books for Penguin, One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me! (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2017) and Raindrops to Rainbow (Penguin Workshop, 2021) were both selected for inclusion in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Raindrops to Rainbow also was chosen by the Delaware Center for the Book as Delaware’s “Great Reads from Great Places” selection for the National Book Festival in 2021.

In simple rhyming text, Raindrops to Rainbow provides a color-focused story about a young girl who experiences a thunderstorm and learns that only after some rain can we enjoy the rainbow. Illustrator Charlene Chua of Canada created lovely, bright artwork, including an adorable Welsh Corgi.

Meanwhile, One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me! illustrated by Clive McFarland of Ireland, enables young children to count their way through the seasons as they watch leaves growing on and later falling off a tree. Glowing reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews praised the book’s bouncy rhymes and bold artwork.

John’s other picture books include Daddy Poems, Mommy Poems, Grandparent Poems, and No Boys Allowed: Poems About Brothers and Sisters, all published by Boyds Mills Press. He also has published Beach Fun: Poems of Surf and Sand (illustrated with photos by Lisa Joy Goodman) and The Sound in the Basement (illustrated by Eric Hamilton) under his own First State Press imprint. 

In terms of nonfiction, John contributed to the best-selling National Geographic Kids book 125 True Stories of Amazing Pets. Other nonfiction books include a six-book series about the Revolutionary War for elementary students as well as high school-level biographies of Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley, Jennifer Hudson, and Amelia Earhart (all published by Enslow). John also has written elementary-level biographies of Alexander Graham Bell (published by HarperCollins/Time for Kids), Abraham Lincoln and Geronimo (published by Hameray), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (published by Capstone). 

Other Capstone titles include books about the Lewis & Clark expedition, the Declaration of Independence, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Challenger disaster, the Alamo, the Civil War, the Harlem Hellfighters, Navy SEALS, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, Understanding Propaganda, Peculiar Nature, and many others. In addition, he has written history-based graphic novels about the Donner Party, Henry Hudson, and the deadly race to the South Pole for Capstone’s Deadly Expeditions series.

John has done K-12 school and library visits (live or via Zoom) in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia, and Maine, speaking on topics ranging from poetry writing to crafting nonfiction to principles of journalism. He has spoken at the national conferences of the International Literacy Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, as well as state conferences in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. Visit the Presentation or Contact page to find out how to bring John to your school or conference.