Tami Charles

Tami Charles is the New York Times bestselling author of All Because You Matter (2020) and numerous books for children and young adults. She is a former teacher and also writes middle-grade and nonfiction books.

Tami Charles attended Newark Public Schools, where her mother was a teacher, vice-principal, and eventually principal at her elementary school. She also became a teacher and made it her mission to introduce her students to all types of literature, especially diverse books.

Tami Charles earned a BA from Saint Elizabeth University and MA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Tami felt there weren’t nearly as many diverse books as she’d hoped for. It was then that she decided to reignite her passion for writing.

Her middle-grade debut, Like Vanessa (2018), earned Top 10 spots on the Indies Introduce and Spring Kids' Next lists, three starred reviews and a Junior Library Guild selection. Her next was the picture book Freedom Soup (2019).

After that, Charles switched to literature for teens. Her latest titles include YA novel-in-verse, Muted, which was a Buzzfeed Top 40 pick for 2021, and the follow-up to All Because You Matter, We Are Here.

Tami Charles lives in Shore View, New Jersey.

Photo credit: Twitter @TamiWritesStuff