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.
Virginia Esther Hamilton was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books and the Newbery Medal in 1975.
Ashley Frederick Bryan was 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. His picture book Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.
Flying Africans are figures of African diaspora legend who escape enslavement by a magical passage back over the ocean. Most noted in Gullah culture, they also occur in wider African-American folklore, and in that of some Afro-Caribbean peoples.
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman is a 1996 children's picture book by Alan Schroeder and is illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Released in 1996 by Dial Press, it is a fictionalized story of Harriet Tubman as a young girl.
Never Forgotten is a 2011 picture book by Pat McKissack about a blacksmith father in West Africa who has Musafa, his son, kidnapped by slavers and with the assistance of the four elements discovers that Musafa is working in Charleston as a blacksmith's apprentice.
The Hired Hand: An African-American Folktale is a 1997 book by Robert D. San Souci and illustrator Jerry Pinkney based on an African American folktale about an itinerant worker who is able to rejuvenate and resurrect people.
Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? is a 1992 children's biography by Patricia and Frederick McKissack. It tells the story of African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist, Sojourner Truth.
Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters is a 1994 children's book by Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack. It is about the preparations and workings around the Christmas season on a slave plantation in 1850s Virginia.
The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll is a 2007 picture book by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It is about a girl, Nella, living during the Great Depression who amazingly receives a doll for Christmas, initially doesn't share with her sisters but then relents after discovering that it's not fun to play by herself.
Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts is a 1996 book by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a 1997 retelling of Rudyard Kipling's classic story by Jerry Pinkney about a mongoose that protects a family from two cobras. The book won a Caldecott honor in 1998 for its illustrations.
Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt is a 2008 picture book by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. It is about a young girl, Baby girl, who, growing up amongst the quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama, makes her first quilt.
Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl is a 2003 picture book by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by James Ransome. It is a retelling by Hamilton, in the Gullah dialect, of the classic story of Bruh Rabbit outwitting Bruh Wolf.
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales is a 1985 collection of twenty-four folktales retold by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. They encompass animal tales, fairy tales, supernatural tales, and tales of the enslaved Africans.
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.
Jazz on a Saturday Night is a 2007 children's picture book by American writers Leo and Diane Dillon published by The Blue Sky Press.
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom is a 2006 children's picture book by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, originally published by Hyperion Books for Children. It has received both a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award.
The White Cat and the Monk: A Retelling of the Poem "Pangur Bán" is a 2016 children's picture book by Jo Ellen Bogart and illustrated by Sydney Smith. An adaption of an anonymous ninth century poem, it is about the friendship between Pangur, a cat and a monk, told over the course of one night, and the fulfillment they both receive by morning.
Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales is a 1995 collection of nineteen stories by Black women, retold by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. They include animal tales, fairy tales, and three biographical profiles of real Black women. All the stories feature comments on their sources from Hamilton.
