A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children". The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children's literature in the United States. Books selected are widely carried by bookstores and libraries, the authors are interviewed on television, and master's theses and doctoral dissertations are written on them. Named for John Newbery, an 18th-century English publisher of juvenile books, the winner of the Newbery is selected at the ALA's Midwinter Conference by a fifteen-person committee. The Newbery was proposed by Frederic G. Melcher in 1921, making it the first children's book award in the world. The physical bronze medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and is given to the winning author at the next ALA annual conference. Since its founding there have been several changes to the composition of the selection committee, while the physical medal remains the same.
The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Besides the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
Galway Mills Kinnell was an American poet. His dark poetry emphasized scenes and experiences in threatening, ego-less natural environments. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1982 collection, Selected Poems and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright. From 1989 to 1993, he was poet laureate for the state of Vermont.
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.
Christopher Denise is an American artist and author. He illustrated two of Brian Jacques' Redwall picture books,as well as the picture books The Great Redwall Feast and A Redwall Winter's Tale. He also illustrated The Redwall Cookbook.
Brian Kane Floca is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for illustrating books written by Avi and for nonfiction picture books. In 2014, he won the Caldecott Medal for his book, Locomotive, as well as the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor.
Kevin Henkes is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. As an illustrator he won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon (2004). Two of his books were Newbery Medal Honor Books, Olive's Ocean in 2004 and The Year of Billy Miller in 2014. His picture book Waiting was named both a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and a Geisel Honor Book. It was only the second time any author has won that combination of awards.
David Wiesner is an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for picture books including some that tell stories without words. As an illustrator he has won three Caldecott Medals recognizing the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children" and he was one of five finalists in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available for creators of children's books.
Marjorie A. Priceman is an American writer or illustrator of more than 30 children's picture books including two Caldecott Honor Books. Her first picture book, Friend or Frog, was published in 1989, soon after her graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design. Priceman's books are known for their bright watercolors, free-flowing lines and whimsical spirit. Her illustrations to When Zaydeh Danced on Eldridge Street (1997) by Elsa Okon Rael have been described as "religiously authentic and playful at the same time".
Brian Selznick is an American illustrator and author best known as the writer of The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), Wonderstruck (2011), The Marvels (2015) and Kaleidoscope (2021). He won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration recognizing The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He is also known for illustrating children's books such as the covers of Scholastic's 20th-anniversary editions of the Harry Potter series.
Betsy Reilly Lewin is an American illustrator from Clearfield, Pennsylvania. She studied illustration at Pratt Institute. After graduation, she began designing greeting cards. She began writing and illustrating stories for children's magazines and eventually children's books. She is married to children's book illustrator Ted Lewin and with him has co-written and illustrated several books about their travels to remote places, including Uganda in Gorilla Walk and Mongolia in Horse Song, as well as How to Babysit a Leopard: and Other True Stories from Our Travels Across Six Continents. She is arguably best known for the Caldecott Honor Book Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type.
Noah's Ark is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Peter Spier, first published by Doubleday in 1977. The text includes Spier's translation of "The Flood" by Jacobus Revius, a 17th-century poem telling the Bible story of Noah's Ark. According to Kirkus Reviews, the poem comprises sixty three-syllable lines such as "Pair by pair". "Without revising or even enlarging on the old story, Spier fills it in, delightfully." In a retrospective essay about the Caldecott Medal-winning books from 1976 to 1985, Barbara Bader described the book as "at once elaborate and feeble" and Revius' poem as "neither particularly suited to children nor eloquent in itself."
Gerald Morris is an American author. Morris is known for his series of stories for preteen and teen readers based in the Middle Ages during the time of King Arthur. Collectively called "The Squire's Tales", the books blend retellings of traditional Arthurian Myths, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tristan and Iseult, with original plotlines. The books at the start of the series focus somewhat on Sir Gawain, but primarily on Terence, an original character and Gawain's squire. Although the two characters' roles are minor in some books, they remain throughout the series, whereas main characters from the other books are only mentioned or reappear briefly later in the series.
Olivia is a fictional pig character in a series of children's picture books written and illustrated by the late Ian Falconer, the first entry of which was published in 2000. An animated television series, Olivia, inspired by the character premiered in 2009.
In the children's picture book Chanticleer and the Fox, Barbara Cooney adapted and illustrated the story of Chanticleer and the Fox as told in The Nun's Priest's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, translated by Robert Mayer Lumiansky. Published by Crowell in 1958, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1959. It was also one of the Horn Book "best books of the year".
Javaka Steptoe is an American author and illustrator. He won the 2017 Caldecott Medal as well as the Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, and the Coretta Scott King Book Award from the American Library Association for his picture book Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The Rough Patch is a 2018 picture book by Brian Lies. An idea of Lies' for more than ten years, when it was published it was well received and was named a 2019 Caldecott Honor book. The story tells of a fox named Evan whose dog dies. Evan then experiences various emotions while grieving before adopting a new dog at the end of the book. The book was praised for Lies' mixed media illustrations, in particular the way he used light and shadow.
Thank You, Omu! is a 2018 picture book written and illustrated by Oge Mora. The story is about Omu, who cooks a stew and shares it with her neighbors; they show their gratitude by bringing her food. The book started as an assignment for a class of Mora's at the Rhode Island School of Design, where it was seen by an editor from Little, Brown. Thank You, Omu was well reviewed and a recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations. The book's mixed media drew praise for their detailed depictions of characters and locations.
Ethel Clifford Rosenberg known professionally as Eth Clifford or Ruth Bonn Penn, was an American children's fiction writer, best known as the author of the Flatfoot Fox and Jo-Beth and Mary Rose Mysteries series.
