George Ford is an American illustrator. [1] He was the first illustrator to win a Coretta Scott King Award in 1974 for his illustrations in Ray Charles by Sharon Bell Mathis. [2] His wife Bernette Ford worked in publishing. [3] [4]
His illustrations for Ray Charles were made using acrylic paint. [5]
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. As an advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American civil rights movement.
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.
The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African Americans that reflect the African-American experience. Awards are given both to authors and to illustrators.
Kadir Nelson is a Los Angeles–based painter, illustrator, and author who is best known for his paintings often featured on the covers of The New Yorker magazine, and album covers for Michael Jackson and Drake. His work is focused on African-American culture and history. The New York Times describes his work as: "sumptuous, deeply affecting work. Nelson’s paintings are drenched in ambience, and often overt symbolism. He has twice been a Caldecott honor recipient and won the 2020 Caldecott Medal for his book The Undefeated.
Nikki Grimes is an American author of books written for children and young adults, as well as a poet and journalist.
Bryan Collier is an American writer and illustrator known best for illustrating children's books. He won both the Coretta Scott King Award, as illustrator, and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for Uptown, the first book he both wrote and illustrated. He has won six King Awards as illustrator and he is a four-time Caldecott honor recipient.
Christopher Dean "Chris" Myers is an American author and artist, creating cross-cultural works in a variety of mediums. His approach often facilitates connections between artists. Myers has also collaborated on a number of children's picture books with his father, Walter Dean Myers, and is a recipient of the Coretta Scott King award, as well as various honors. Chris Myers now has a book imprint with Random House.
John Steptoe was an author and illustrator for children’s books dealing with aspects of the African-American experience. He is best known for Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, which was acknowledged by literary critics as a breakthrough in African history and culture.
Ashley F. Bryan is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African American experience. He was U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. Ashley Bryan's Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.
Sharon Bell Mathis is an American librarian and author who has written books mainly for children and young adults.
Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir is a 1979 book about three women's remembrances of their childhoods from the late 19th century through the 20th century.
Jan Spivey Gilchrist is an African-American author, illustrator, and fine artist from Chicago, Illinois. She is most well known for her work in children's literature, especially illustrations in The Great Migration: Journey to the North, Nathaniel Talking, and My America. Her books have received numerous awards including the Coretta Scott King Medal for Illustration and the Parents' Choice Award.
Christian Robinson is an American illustrator of children's books and an animator. He is based in Sacramento, California and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts.
Carole Marie Byard was an American visual artist, illustrator, and photographer. She was an award-winning illustrator of children's books, and the recipient of a Caldecott Honor, as well as multiple Coretta Scott King Awards.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is a 2016 picture book biography by Javaka Steptoe about Jean-Michel Basquiat. Using a style similar to Basquiat's, the book tells the story of his childhood and early career. It won the 2017 Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its illustrations.
Let the Children March is a 2018 children's picture book written by Monica Clark-Robinson and illustrated by Frank Morrison, originally published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The historical fiction work is set during the Birmingham Children's Crusade in 1963. The book was named a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book in 2019.
James E. Ransome is an American illustrator of children's books.
Richard Gregory Christie is an American author and illustrator of picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and album covers best known for his Coretta Scott King Award-winning books No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal, and Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Only Passing Through, and the NAACP Image Award-winning Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change.
Floyd Cooper was an American illustrator of children's books. He was based in Easton, Pennsylvania and has worked with Jane Yolen, Nikki Grimes, Eloise Greenfield, Howard Bryant, Joyce Carol Thomas, Bill Martin Jr and many more. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma.
Bernette Ford was an American author, editor and publisher. She worked as editor-in-chief at Grosset & Dunlap and later Scholastic Books, where she was vice-president of the Cartwheel imprint, which she helped launch. She was known for being one of the few African-American editors working with children's books, having begun her career in the 1970s.