Meet the author

Kari Lavelle.

Writer · United States

Kari Lavelle: author of the gigglesome guessing-game Bum or Face, whose fact-packed non-fiction hides real science behind pure playground fun for reluctant readers.

Kari Lavelle is an American children's author who grew up in the Midwest and now lives in Austin, Texas, having worked as a speech pathologist helping children communicate before turning to writing. She is best known for the gleefully silly non-fiction guessing game Bum or Face (published in the US as Butt or Face?), which challenges readers to decide whether a close-up photo shows an animal's rear or its front before revealing the answer alongside genuinely surprising natural-history facts. The premise is pure playground giggles, but the science underneath is real, making it a brilliant hook for reluctant readers and animal-fact obsessives alike. Lavelle has also written the picture books We Move the World and An Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl Jones Found His Voice. She writes fun, fact-packed non-fiction that turns learning into a game.