Katie Smith Milway — Author

Biography

Bestselling author Katie Smith Milway, whose CitizenKid books One Hen, The Good Garden, Mimi’s Village and The Banana-Leaf Ball have won numerous awards, is on a quest to bring world issues to elementary and middle school children. One Hen set in Ghana, introduces kids to microfinance and the power of social entrepreneurship. One Hen gave rise to One Hen Academy (www.onehen.org), a social entrepreneurship curriculum with Boston Scores. Their downloadable lesson plans are used by educators to teach financial literacy and community engagement in more than 100 countries.

Katie’s 2010 book, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough, is set in the Honduran hillsides and introduces kids to the concept of food security and shows how each of us, at any age, can combat global hunger (www.thegoodgarden.org). Mimi’s Village: And How Basic Health Care Transformed It, is set in Kenya, connects kids’ actions for global health to results in Africa. And her latest book, The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World, is set at a refugee camp in Tanzania, where youth form a soccer team and find community, confidence and hope.

Katie is also principal of philanthropy advisor Milway Consulting and a senior advisor at The Bridgespan Group in Boston, where she led the firm’s knowledge practice for ten years. She has served on the board of relief and development agency World Vision U.S., coordinated community development programs in Latin America and Africa for Food for the Hungry International, and was a delegate to the 1992 Earth Summit. She has written several adult books on sustainable development, including The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives and Changing Lands (Kumarian Press, 1994), which documented the work of sustainable agriculture pioneer Don Elias Sánchez (role model for The Good Garden’s teacher).

Prior to Bridgespan, Katie served as a consultant and senior director at Bain & Co., where she founded the firm’s global publishing group. A graduate of Stanford University, the Free University of Brussels and INSEAD, Katie spent a decade working in and around more than a dozen countries in Africa and Latin America on sustainable development projects, including village banking, food security, primary health care, water resourcing and education.

onehen.org

Awards

The Banana-Leaf Ball

2019 - Alberta Children’s Choice Rocky Mountain Book Award, Bank Street College, Commended
2018 - Best Children’s Books of the Year, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, Winner
2018 - CCBC Choices 2018, Massachusetts Center for the Book, Commended
2018 - Massachusetts Book Awards - Picture Book Category, Ontario Library Association, Honor Book
2018 - Silver Birch Express Award, Skipping Stones Magazine, Commended
2018 - Skipping Stones Honor List, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Winner
2017 - Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection, California Reading Association, Winner
2017 - Eureka! Honor Award, Winner

The Good Garden

2012 - Alberta Children’s Choice Rocky Mountain Book Award, Short-listed
2011 - Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Winner
2011 - Skipping Stones Honor Award, Skipping Stones Magazine, Winner
2011 - Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street Children’s Book Committee, Winner
2010 - Best Bets Nonfiction, Ontario Library Association, Winner

Mimi’s Village

2013 - Red Cedar Award, BC Young Reader’s Choice, Short-listed
2013 - Hackmatack’s Children’s Choice Book Award, Short-listed
2013 - Best Books for Kids & Teens, Starred Selection, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Winner
2013 - Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street Children’s Book Committee, Winner

One Hen

2010 - Alberta Children’s Choice Rocky Mountain Book Award, Short-listed
2010 - Golden Oak Award, Ontario Library Association, Winner
2009 - Outstanding International Book, USBBY, Winner
2009 - Norma Fleck Award, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Short-listed
2009 - Silver Birch Award, Ontario Library Association, Short-listed
2009 - Notable Book for a Global Society, International Reading Association, Winner
2009 - Children’s Africana Book Award, African Studies Association, Winner
2009 - Children’s Choices, International Reading Association, Winner
2009 - Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Winner
2009 - Best Bet for Children and Teens, Ontario Library Association, Winner
2008 - Skipping Stones Honor Award, Winner
2008 - Massachusetts Book Award, Winner