Audrey Penn
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Audrey Penn 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 Audrey Penn
Audrey Penn is an educator and storyteller whose The Kissing Hand — famously inspired by watching a mother raccoon nuzzle her kit's palm at a nature center — has comforted first-day jitters for three decades and 7 million copies.
Penn developed her stories in hospital wards and classrooms as a visiting storyteller; The Kissing Hand was rejected widely before a small child-welfare press took it, and word of mouth from teachers did the rest.
Also by this author: A Pocket Full of Kisses · Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully
Official website: www.audreypenn.com
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.