Kate Banks

Katherine Anne Banks (February 13, 1960 – February 24, 2024) was an American children's writer. Her books, The Night Worker, won the 2001 Charlotte Zolotow Award, And If the Moon Could Talk won the 1998 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for best picture book. Dillon Dillon was a finalist for the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Howie Bowles, Secret Agent was nominated for the 2000 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile. Max’s Math won the 2016 Mathical Book Prize.

Early life Kate Banks was born on February 13, 1960, in Farmington, Maine. Her father was a history professor at the University of Maine who was killed in a botched robbery in 1979. Banks worked with Foster for five years before leaving to become a writer, with Foster editing her books for the following couple of decades.

Personal life Banks and her husband, Pierluigi Mezzomo, had two sons.

Books Alphabet Soup, Dragonfly Books, 1988 Big, Bigger, Biggest Adventure, Random House, 1991 The Bunnysitters, Random House, 1991 Peter and the Talking Shoes, Knopf, 1994 Baboon, Frances Foster Books, 1997 Spider Spider, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997 And If the Moon Could Talk, Frances Foster Books, 1998 The Bird, the Monkey, and the Snake in the Jungle, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999 Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, Scholastic, 1999 Howie Bowles and Uncle Sam, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000 The Night Worker, Frances Foster Books, 2000 A Gift from the Sea, Frances Foster Books, 2001 Mama’s Little Baby, DK Publishing, 2001 Close Your Eyes, Frances Foster Books, 2002 Dillon Dillon, Frances Foster Books, 2002 The Turtle and the Hippopotamus, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 Mama’s Coming Home, Frances Foster Books, 2003 Walk Softly, Rachel, Frances Foster Books, 2003 The Cat Who Walked Across France, Frances Foster Books, 2004 Friends of the Heart/Amici del Cuore, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 The Great Blue House, Frances Foster Books, 2005 Max’s Words, Frances Foster Books, 2006 Fox, Frances Foster Books, 2007 Lenny’s Space, Frances Foster Books, 2007 Max’s Dragon, Frances Foster Books, 2008 Monkeys and Dog Days, Frances Foster Books, 2008 Monkeys and the Universe, Frances Foster Books, 2009 That’s Papa’s Way, Frances Foster Books, 2009 What’s Coming for Christmas?, Frances Foster Books, 2009 The Eraserheads, Frances Foster Books, 2010 Max’s Castle, Frances Foster Books, 2011 This Baby illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, Frances Foster Books, 2011 The Magician's Apprentice, Frances Foster Books, 2012 The Bear in the Book, Frances Foster Books, 2012 Thank You, Mama illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, Frances Foster Books, 2013 City Cat, illustrated by Lauren Castillo, Frances Foster Books, 2013 Max’s Math, illustrated by Boris Kulikov, Frances Foster Books, 2015 Boy's Best Friend, with Rupert Sheldrake, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015 How to Find an Elephant, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017