Katie Mazeika
Katie Mazeika is an award-winning author and illustrator who can’t imagine a better job than making books. She loves creating stories based on real people and events. Katie likes to highlight disabled voices in her work. Katie’s books include Maybe Just Ask Me!, Beulah Has a Hunch!, Annette Feels Free and Is That the Bus? (written by Libby Koponen). Katie’s honors include the 2026 Charlotte Huck Award Recommended Book, the 2026 Christopher Award, the 2025 Margaret Wise Brown Award Silver Medal, Junior Library Guild Selection, Banks Street Books, Best Books 2023, CBC Best Trade Social Studies Book, Septima Clark Book Award, and Northern Lights Book Award.
Featured Book
Maybe Just Ask Me!
Based on the author’s own childhood experience, this funny and heartfelt picture book follows a young girl who wants to bring discussion of her disability into the open, exploring themes of acknowledging and celebrating differences. Mazie wears an eyepatch and a head scarf, and on her first day at a new school she’s prepared for her classmates to wonder why. And they do, but no one talks to her about it. Instead, wild rumors fly around the classroom that she’s a pirate or a dragon burned off her hair! Mazie doesn’t mind explaining her disability, but can she find the courage to tell the other kids to just ask her?