Keila V. Dawson is an award-winning author who writes fiction and nonfiction children’s books. A former educator and New Orleans native, she is the author of Yumbo Gumbo, a 2025 NSTA-CBC title; Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book, a 2025 Choose to Read Ohio book-list selection; the forthcoming Annabelle’s Beignet Café; and The King Cake Baby. She is co-editor and contributor to No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change, winner of the 2024 Green Earth Book Award and the 2024 ILA Social Justice Literature Award, and a companion title to the award-winning No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History. Her forthcoming books include No Brain the Same: Young Neurodivergent Activists Shaping Our Future and How We Got Here: Conversations with United States History. Dawson has also lived and worked in states across the U.S. and abroad in the Philippines, Japan, and Egypt.

When Dawson isn’t reading, writing, and visiting schools, she’s traveling or playing tennis, or digging in genealogical archives. Find free educational content, read reviews, and articles about her books on her website. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram.

Find free educational content, read reviews, and articles about her books at www.keiladawson.com.