Bio
Tracey Baptiste is a New York Times bestselling author of seventeen books and several short stories for children. She was born in Trinidad surrounded by sea, sunshine, and people who love to tell a story. It’s no wonder she decided to become an author at the age of three. At age twelve she attempted her first novel. A romance. This was unfortunate because at twelve she knew absolutely nothing about romance. She was inspired to write for kids after moving to the United States at age fifteen and reading “The Friends” by Rosa Guy, a fellow Trinidadian. But before becoming an author, she taught in elementary school and then became an editor for a textbook company, and later for a nonfiction publisher. Her first published novel was “Angel’s Grace” which was named one of the 100 Best Books for Reading and Sharing in 2005 by NYC librarians. She followed with several nonfiction books, but her next novel was “The Jumbies” (2015) followed by sequels “Rise of the Jumbies” (2017) and “The Jumbie God’s Revenge” (2019). She has also written for the popular Minecraft franchise with “Minecraft: The Crash” (2018) which debut at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. Now Tracey writes full time and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Lesley University, as well as at various conferences around the country.