Brad Meltzer, author portrait
© Donna Newman

Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Ordinary People Change the World children’s book series, The Lightning Rod and twelve other thriller novels, nonfiction books such as The JFK Conspiracy, and comic books, for which he has won the prestigious Eisner Award. He is one of the only authors to have had books on the bestseller list in five different categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Advice, Children’s Books, and Graphic Books.
 
Brad is the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel and is responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag with his show Brad Meltzer’s Lost History. His children’s books are the inspiration for the PBS KIDS TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum.  
 
His books have been read by multiple U.S. Presidents. The Hollywood Reporter put him on their list of the 25 Most Powerful Authors. And his recent commencement address at the University of Michigan has been called “one of the best of all time.”
I am Abraham Lincoln
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Books

I am Abraham Lincoln
I am Amelia Earhart

What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2025-26

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 284 programs and their title selections from publicly available sources, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2025-26. We will continue to update this

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2026 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2026! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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