Nina Laden
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Nina Laden is one of roughly one hundred authors whose work was selected by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list — 120 books chosen across four reading stages, from first lap-reads to first chapter books. The selected book was chosen for how precisely it meets children at a real developmental moment. This recognition cannot be bought: no author or publisher paid to appear on our lists, and we take no commission on any book sale.
About Nina Laden
Nina Laden is an author-illustrator who studied illustration at Syracuse University and worked as a graphic designer and freelance illustrator before her first children's book, The Night I Followed the Dog, was published in 1994. She has since published more than twenty-five books, including the Peek-a board books for babies.
Both her parents, Frieda Savitz-Laden and Bob Laden, were artists, and she has been making art and telling stories since she could hold a crayon. She lives and keeps a studio on Lummi Island, Washington.
Also by this author: Peek-a Zoo! · If I Had a Little Dream · Yellow Kayak
Official website: ninaladen.com/new
Selected for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list
Part of The Best Children’s Books by Age, chosen by the teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX.