Denise Fleming
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Denise Fleming 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 Denise Fleming
Denise Fleming makes her illustrations from colored cotton pulp poured through stencils — literally papermaking each page — giving her books a soft, saturated texture toddlers try to pet. She won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond.
She discovered pulp painting at a papermaking workshop mid-career and rebuilt her whole artistic practice around it, working over vats in her Toledo studio.
Also by this author: In the Tall, Tall Grass · In the Small, Small Pond · Barnyard Banter
Official website: www.denisefleming.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.