Angela Burke Kunkel

year in books

Angela Burke Kunkel’s Followers (69)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
Danielle
8,195 books | 1,973 friends

Jenna
7,037 books | 372 friends

Vanessa...
688 books | 23 friends

Heather...
430 books | 17 friends

Carrie ...
630 books | 141 friends

Monica
1,197 books | 24 friends

Rebecca...
102 books | 50 friends

Serenity
2,606 books | 51 friends

More friends…

Angela Burke Kunkel

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United States
Website

Twitter

Genre

Member Since
February 2011

URL


Angela Burke Kunkel is the author of Digging for Words: José Alberto Gutiérrez and the Library He Built (Random House/Schwartz & Wade, 2020), an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and winner of both the Américas Award and International Latino Book Award. She is also the author of Penguin Journey (Abrams Appleseed, 2022). Look for her next books from Random House Studio, Make Way: The Story Robert McCloskey, Nancy Schön, and Some Very Famous Ducklings in 2023 and World More Beautiful: The Life and Art of Barbara Cooney in 2024.

Angela lives with her family in Vermont, where she works as a school librarian. She is represented by Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency. You can also connect on Instagram @angkunkel.

To ask Angela Burke Kunkel questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Angela Burke Kunkel Years ago, when I was a student at Simmons College in Boston, I was also a nanny for a little girl named Emily. One of my favorite memories from that …moreYears ago, when I was a student at Simmons College in Boston, I was also a nanny for a little girl named Emily. One of my favorite memories from that time was taking Emily to the Public Garden on a beautiful spring day and watching her interact with the bronze sculpture of Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings, walking up and down, patting and hugging and sitting on the each of the ducks.

Years later, when my own daughter was born, a friend from Massachusetts sent us a copy of Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, encouraging us to come visit Boston (and the sculpture) again. And within a few years, we did. And a few years after that, during a trivia game at the wedding reception of an American relative and his Russian groom, I learned that in 1990, a replica of Boston's beloved duckling statues was installed in Moscow's Novodevichy Park. With that, the idea for a picture book began . . . and shifted.

As it turns out, the diplomatic ins and outs of a Cold War-era gift does not make for very good picture book material. It led me, however, to a new appreciation of the artistic processes of both Robert McCloskey, author and illustrator of Make Way for Ducklings, and Nancy Schön, the sculptor who reimagined McCloskey's book as public art. My next book, Make Way: The Story of Robert McCloskey, Nancy Schön, and Some Very Famous Ducklings, is a dual picture book biography of both artists, illustrated by the incredible Claire Keane.

Claire's color palette was inspired by McCloskey's early color sketches for Make Way for Ducklings, and I can't wait for readers to see her brilliant nods to the original. Make Way (Random House Studio) won't be on bookstore shelves until April of 2023, but if you're a fan of Robert McCloskey, Nancy Schön, a Bostonian, or just an admirer of the creative process, you can preorder a copy now!(less)
Average rating: 4.4 · 1,681 ratings · 421 reviews · 5 distinct worksSimilar authors
Digging For Words: José Alb...

by
4.46 avg rating — 1,008 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Make Way: The Story of Robe...

by
4.36 avg rating — 348 ratings — published 2023 — 3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
World More Beautiful: The L...

by
4.35 avg rating — 198 ratings3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Penguin Journey: A Picture ...

by
4.08 avg rating — 126 ratings2 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Snow Geese Season

by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Angela Burke Kunkel…

It's Been Awhile

I started a draft of this newsletter and realized it’s been a whole year since I sent one out? That seems both impossible and also very possible. Time has passed quickly and slowly, and I’ve spent a lot of it rethinking my online presence, acknowledging how social media affects my brain, and detangling myself from platforms like Facebook and Twitter (and taking long breaks from Instagram, too, tho

Read more of this blog post »
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 25, 2026 06:12
Lost Lambs
Angela is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
The Moon Without ...
Angela is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
This Is the Story...
Rate this book
Clear rating

 

Angela’s Recent Updates

Joy Joy wants to read Isola
"Mark your calendars for the 3rd Annual Newton Children’s Book Festival 2026! We have a NEW location! It’s bigger and has a lot more parking! It’s also accessible via an elevator. This year, we will all be in one big room! DateSunday, November 15th..." Read more of this blog post »
Angela has read
Snow Geese Season by Angela Burke Kunkel
Snow Geese Season
by Angela Burke Kunkel (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Angela is now following Michele Knott and Emma Smith
5915836 16936177
Heart the Lover by Lily King
" Loved this one. "
More of Angela's books…

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Goodreads Librari...: Please merge these two editions? 3 12 Nov 15, 2022 06:24AM  
Goodreads Librari...: Please Combine Editions [Done] 3 8 Dec 20, 2023 09:13AM  
One Million Pages...: Lindy-Lane's MILL 212 284 Jul 01, 2025 02:26PM  
Virginia      Evans
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Virginia Evans, The Correspondent

Pamela Zagarenski
“There are never any rules, rights, or wrongs in imagining--- imagining just is.”
Pamela Zagarenski, The Whisper

E.B. White
“It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.”
E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

E.B. White
“Next day, as the Ferris wheel was being taken apart and the race horses were being loaded into vans and the entertainers were packing up their belongings and driving away in their trailers, Charlotte died. The Fair Grounds were soon deserted. The sheds and buildings were empty and forlorn. The infield was littered with bottles and trash. Nobody, of the hundreds of people that had visited the Fair, knew that a grey spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died.”
E.B. White

Octavia E. Butler
“People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me.”
Octavia E. Butler

220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 316436 members — last activity 0 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
25x33 APS Middle School Librarians — 16 members — last activity Feb 01, 2016 07:54AM
Albuquerque Public Schools Middle School Librarians
183637 Libri- Book Club — 7 members — last activity Feb 11, 2016 11:28AM
Truman Language Arts teachers dedicated to cultivating a culture of reading!
No comments have been added yet.