Goth Girl author Chris Riddell says in a letter to Justine Greening that many lack investment and need funding via a central government grant.
Supported by eight former children's laureates, Riddell is asking Ms Greening to set out required standards.
The government said it was up to schools to spend as they saw fit.
In his letter, Riddell, supported by authors such as Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Quentin Blake, said: " I have seen personally, in my school visits up and down the country, how they promote reading for pleasure and in doing so, turn pupils into avid readers.
"I am deeply concerned that this role is not fully appreciated and, worse, is being undermined through lack of economic and intellectual investment.
"In recent months two major school library services closed in Dorset and Berkshire, and year after year the School Library Association loses members as school library provision shrinks through lack of funding."
He said he had seen how library provision was "wildly inconsistent", with great examples of well-funded and staffed libraries.
He said the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries had asked the DfE to gather statistics on school library provision so that the extent of this problem could be understood, but this had not yet happened.
Riddell also said: "While schools face insidious pressure on budgets and staff, things cannot change.
"That is why, with the backing of my fellow laureates, I am now calling on Justine Greening and the Department of Education to act on the all-party group's request and then set out clear standards of library provision, and put into place the necessary funding."
This way, every school would have a library service it could be proud of, with books to borrow and, wherever possible, a school librarian to help children choose, he said.
A Department for Education official said reading was a key part of a child's education and ultimately helped them to reach their full potential.
"That's why we've strengthened the curriculum to focus on developing their reading and writing skills, and teaching phonics helps children acquire the basic building blocks of reading," the official said.
"We want all children to have the opportunity to read widely - school libraries play a role in this, and schools are responsible for deciding how to provide this service for their pupils.
"This is backed up by a record Â£40bn schools budget this year, and it is up schools to spend their funding as they see fit."

China calls the island Yongxing and has been building up a settlement there for the last two years.
The school is expected to serve just 40 children, whose parents all work on the tiny island.
Last month, Chinese and Vietnamese ships clashed over a drilling rig that China has placed near the islands.
Beijing claims a U-shaped swathe of the South China Sea that covers areas other South East Asian nations say are their territory.
The issue has been rumbling in recent years amid an increasingly assertive stance from China over its claims.
This is the latest construction project on the island of Yongxing.
There is already a hospital, a library and an airport. It also has mobile telephone coverage.
China has been building there for the last two years, ever since it announced that the tiny settlement was a city, the administrative centre for a vast swathe of the South China Sea.
The school will teach the children of the island's growing population, mostly made up of soldiers and construction workers.
But it has a wider significance: it helps cement China's territorial claims in the area.
Others may have competing claims - but those will be hard to enforce as China already has a growing presence there.
Earlier this month, the UN said it was willing to mediate between China and Vietnam in the dispute.
Beijing claims almost the entire sea, based on a mid-20th Century map with a line apparently delineating Chinese territory, and vague historical claims going back more than 1,000 years.
Vietnam says it has controlled the Paracels for centuries.
Last month China's decision to move the rig sparked anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam, with mobs attacking factories and businesses.
The Philippines is also in a territorial dispute with China and is in the process of taking China to a UN court over its territorial claims.
It has also recently signed a new security deal with the US which would allow an expanded US troop presence, in a move seen as linked to Manila's deteriorating ties with Beijing.
The children's laureate and eight well-known children's authors are calling on the education secretary to ensure school libraries are preserved.
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China says it will build a school in the disputed Paracel Islands, boosting its presence in waters also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.