Brenna Maloney

Instructor

I began my career as a graphics reporter for the Knight-Ridder Tribune wire service. I spent 12 years as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post before leaving to become the managing editor for National Geographic’s Explorer magazine. After 13 years as managing editor, I moved on to directing special projects for the Society’s museum and education department. I taught as an adjunct at Mason. Now I teach at Mason full time and direct the journalism concentration. I write books in my spare time.

Selected Publications

Buzzkill: A Wild Wander Through the Weird and Threatened World of Bugs, Holt, 2022 (starred reviews from Kirkus, Horn Book and School Library Journal); Junior Library Guild, gold seal standard; named to the School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2022 list)

Expanded Publication List

Day and Night (series): Arctic, Desert, Ocean, Rainforest (Early Readers), Scholastic, 2024

Rocks and Minerals, DK Super Readers, Level 4, 2023

Wild World: Pets and Wild Animals (series): Dog or Wolf; Horse or Zebra; Cat or Tiger; Gecko or Komodo Dragon (Early Readers), Scholastic, 2023

Big and Small (series) Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Mammals, Fish—Scholastic, 2023

Buzzkill: A Wild Wander Through the Weird and Threatened World of Bugs, Holt, 2022 (starred reviews from Kirkus, Horn Book, Book List and School Library Journal); Junior Library Guild, gold seal standard; named to the School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2022 list)

Fast and Slow (series) Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Scholastic, 2022

Schools Around the World, Scholastic, 2021

Pets Around the World, Scholastic, 2021

Tadpole to Frog (Growing up series), Scholastic, 2021

Good Dad Diego, Viking, 2019

125 Animals that Changed the World, National Geographic Children's Books, 2019

Robotpedia, Insight Kids, 2018 (Winner of the Silver Award for the 31st annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (Independent Book Publishers Association))

Philomena’s New Glasses, Viking, 2017 (Named "Picture Book of the Year" by the state of Pennsylvania, Keystone to Reading Elementary Book Award, 2019-2020; nominated "Picture Book of the Year" by the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award program; nominated "Picture Book of the Year" by the Missouri Association of School Librarians; nominated for the 2020 “Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award.” Chosen for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 line-ups of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program; picked up by Scholastic Book Club. Now in Braille!)

Whitewater! National Geographic Children's Books, 2017

Ready Rabbit Gets Ready, Viking, 2015 (Barnes & Noble’s “Picture Book of the Month” February 2015; Publishers Weekly starred review)

This is Mouse, C&T Publishing, 2014 (Selected as one of the top 10 books in the “Lifestyle category of Publisher’s Weekly’s Fall Books announcement. Named one of the “Top Craft Books” for 2014 by the Associated Press)

Sock it to Me, C&T Publishing, 2012

Sockology, C&T Publishing, 2011 (Translated into German)

Socks Appeal, C&T Publishing, 2010 (Named “Book of the Year” in the 2010 Forward Book of the Year Awards for Crafts/Hobbies; Translated into German)

FREELANCE BOOK EDITOR, 11 chapter books, National Geographic Children’s Books, 2015—2017

Honor’s thesis (Butler): “Deceptive Nonverbal Communication”

Master’s thesis (MSU): “Content Analysis of Selected Newspaper Ethics Codes”

Author, “Abraham Lincoln and the Political Cartoon,” Lincoln Herald, 1995

Courses Taught

COMM 203 Introduction to Journalism

COMM303/309 Writing Across the Media

COMM352 News Editing

COMM369 Multimedia Storytelling

COMM475 Journalism and the Law

Education

Bachelor’s degree in public and corporate communication from Butler University; master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.