Kerry O’Malley Cerra is an award-winning author of middle-grade books and picture books. Her first novel, Just a Drop of Water, landed on five state reading lists, won the Crystal Kite Award, a Florida Book Award, and was named to VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction list for 2014. Her novel, Hear Me, is a Sunshine State Reader Award winner, and her book, Make a Little Wave, won a Florida Book Award, was named a 2025 honor book for the national Green Earth Book Award, and was named to the Social Justice Literature Award reading list. Her newest book, The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA’s Deaf Bioastronauts is out now! Stay tuned for her forthcoming picture book, A Name Sign for Seraphina (Little, Brown BFYR, Jan. 2028).

Kerry’s work has received praise from The New York Times, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, VOYA, and the Horn Book Guide calling her stories moving, perceptive, well-developed, and woven with an expert hand.

A deaf author herself (who now hears with the help of one cochlear implant), she’s passionate about books that depict d/Deaf and/or hearing loss experiences for children. Kerry, a former high school media specialist and social studies teacher, lives in South Florida.