You have exceeded your limit for simultaneous device logins.
Your current subscription allows you to be actively logged in on up to three (3) devices simultaneously. Click on continue below to log out of other sessions and log in on this device.
Charles George Esperanza, C. G., has a gift for illustrating stories. His choice of palette paints the plot on canvas. His brushstrokes create characters so real and relatable, you feel like you’re a part of the setting, a character in the landscape. His thoughtful execution of the stories on the...
Jason Reynolds sits on the rooftop of his DC home, overlooking the warm sunset, telling me stories of his late father riding motorcycles, and says, “Build your archive.” He wears all black and hobbles up the winding staircase carrying a smooth bottle of water. He does not walk fast. Everything...
On January 27, 2025, the Youth Media Awards were announced, as usual, during what was long known as the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference (in recent years: LibLearnX). It seems likely that this was the last wintertime conference in that form. With so much upheaval and uncertainty (e.g., book bans,...
First, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Jury for honoring me with this prestigious award. I humbly accept the 2025 Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. At the same time, I feel a mix of emotions, as my dear friend...
One night, a few very talented illustrators represented by my agency, Gallt and Zacker, had dinner after the Original Art show at the Society of Illustrators. All of them were among the best at what they do in the picture book field. I happened to sit across from Sean Rubin,...
During the pandemic, while being quarantined with the rest of the world, I found myself unable to read or write much. Because of this, I, like many of us, slipped down the rabbit hole (or mudslide or goldmine or cesspool, depending on the day) of the internet. My questions were...
The most prestigious honors in children’s literature, the Newbery and Caldecott medals, were awarded to Erin Entrada Kelly for The First State of Being and Rebecca Lee Kunz for Chooch Helped on January 27, 2025, at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Also announced at the gathering...
Winner My Daddy Is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales; illus. by C. G. Esperanza Primary Abrams 48 pp. 6/24 9781419760815 $18.99 e-book ed. 9781647006280 $17.09 A Panamanian American girl and her daddy get up before dawn to ride horses through their town in this atmospheric picture book that celebrates a...
Winner Twenty-Four Seconds from Now…: A Love Story by Jason Reynolds High School Dlouhy/Atheneum 256 pp. 10/24 9781665961271 $19.99 e-book ed. 9781665961295 $10.99 Seventeen-year-old Neon is in his girlfriend Aria’s bathroom, wracked with anxiety because, for the two of them, “tonight is for our first time.” Twenty-four seconds earlier, he...
Dare Coulter. Photo: Joshua Steadman for WALTER Magazine. The first thing one learns about working with Dare Coulter is to expect the unexpected. Her beautiful world has its own rules of order and its own rhythms and rhymes. Adages, idioms, metaphors need to be rewritten. Case in point — for...