Friends I Love to Keep - Paperback

Wade Hudson (BooksByWadeHudson.com) has written over thirty-five books for young readers, including the picture book The Day Madear Voted; the middle grade memoir Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South (winner of the Malka Penn Award); and the anthologies The Talk (a New York Times Best Book of the Year), We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, and Recognize! An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life (all co-edited with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson). His recent middle grade novel, The Reckoning, was a Black Caucus of the American Library Association / School Library Journal 2025 Honor Award recipient and was named a Best Book of 2025 by the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature and the Bank Street College of Education. The president and co-founder of Just Us Books, Inc., he speaks around the country about issues of inclusion and diversity and has received numerous honors, including the Children's Book Council's Diversity Achievement Award and an Eric Carle Honor. He lives in East Orange, New Jersey.