"One of my first memories is of being read aloud to. My mother would prop me in a corner of the sofa and read to me before I was old enough to sit up by myself. But my parents were determined that I not learn to read before I went to school; they were af...

Robin McKinley achieved renown in the field of children's literature with her first novel, Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), and her reputation has continued to grow. Her fourth book, The Hero and the Crown (1984), won the...

Robin McKinley has been described by her friends Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold in Horn Book as a "person who approaches every instant and event with such boisterousness, energy, and vehemence that even the most mundane aspects of her life are infus...

Nearly twenty years after the publication of Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, Robin McKinley has, quizzically, produced another full-length novel retelling the same tale. In her author's note, McKinley explains her impetus for the second retelling and...

When Teena Marie visited the Johnson Publishing Company headquarters in Chicago, she said, "I wish my daughter was here to see this." Teena Marie, who's known affectionately as the No. 1 honorary Soul Sista, believes in teaching her daughter about Black culture...