Photo: Susannah Richards.

Illustrators and writers spend much of our time working alone. Making a book is a long process. Mine usually take about a year from start to finish, and six months of that time is spent researching the subject by reading books, looking at photos, and watching video footage. (Ninety-five percent of that information never appears in my final version.) I face my drawing table feeling low at times, thinking, No one will ever see this.

[Read Horn Book reviews of the 2025 BGHB Nonfiction winners.]

Then, I tell myself to keep going. All the research, reading, sketching, and drawing are worth it as long as there is one child who may stumble upon the book, taking her all the way up to the top of Mount Everest, and that may change her life, in a big or small way.

To know that there are people on the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards Committee who decided that Anita’s and my book is worth giving an award to is more than a dream come true.

Thank you so much. And congratulations to the other wonderful book creators being honored today.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. For more on the 2025 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, click on the tag BGHB25.

Single copies of this issue are available for $15.00 including postage and may be ordered from:

Horn Book Magazine Customer Service
magazinesupport@mediasourceinc.com

Full subscription information is here.