About Kim

Kim Baker is an award-winning author of novels for kids. She grew up mostly in New Mexico, Colorado, and California. Kim’s mom is Mexican-American and her dad is white, so she’s bicultural. She’s lived a lot of places like above a Spanish movie theater, in government housing projects, and later next to castle ruins.

Kim really struggled in school but went on to LOVE college. She studied psychology and elementary education with a special focus on urban learning. She took other classes too, just for fun, like marine biology and lots of art. Before becoming a writer, she was a teacher and a counselor at a children’s crisis center. Her favorite things are being creative and helping others, and writing lets her do both. She hopes to write stories that help readers see themselves and find their own voices. She’s always going to focus on characters that learn that they’re stronger and braver than they know.

When she’s not writing, Kim works on community projects and mentors new writers. She also enjoys hiking, being near the water, and making things with her hands like muffins and quilts. Kim lives in Seattle with her family, an assortment of pets, and an opossum that seems to have made a deal with the dogs to nap in the backyard sometimes.