Shani M. King is the multiple award-winning children’s book author of Have I Ever Told You (2019) and Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter (2021). The latter was described as “luminous” by The New York Times Book Review, “a children’s tome filled with Black excellence” by Entertainment Weekly, “a bold homage to the Black experience” by the San Francisco Chronicle, and “an empowering, fiery speech of a book” in a starred review from Booklist.

His children’s biography, Finding Rebecca: The Forgotten Life of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, America’s First Black Female Doctor, was praised by Kirkus Reviews as “a study in perseverance—both that of the book’s subject and the author who unearthed her story.”

His newest picture book, You Are My Favorite Story (with N. Jeremi Duru and illustrated by John Jay Cabuay), is a heartfelt celebration of the bond between father and child. Through lyrical prose and tender moments—from bedtime whispers to after-school reunions—the book explores the love, pride, fear, and hope that define fatherhood while encouraging meaningful conversations between fathers and their children.

Shani is a children’s rights lawyer by training and teaches law at Rutgers Law School. When he’s not teaching or writing, he’s usually with his two children—who inspire his books—and his brilliant, kind wife. In what little spare time he has, Shani runs marathons (slowly), skis whenever he possibly can, and plays the drums (badly).