Autism in Children's Literature: A Discussion with Jen Malia

Summary

An autistic mom of three autistic kids, Dr. Jen Malia is the author of the children’s chapter book series The Infinity Rainbow Club and the picture book Too Sticky! Sensory Issues with Autism. Jen is Professor of English and Creative Writing Coordinator at Norfolk State University. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern California. We talk about her books, and her advocacy to discuss neurodivergence in children's literature.

Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos.

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Mel Rosenberg

Dr. Mel Rosenberg is a children's book author and cofounder of www.Ourboox.com, a website and platform for creating interactive picture books. Mel's debut picture book in North America, EMILY SAW A DOOR, will be published by Penguin Random House in February, 2026 and is available for pre-order. He is represented by the Liza Royce Literary Agency.

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