HCAA 2022 Illustrator Nominees - Profiles

Gusti is an acclaimed author and illustrator of children’s books as well as a committed activist for people with disabilities and nature conservation. He was born Gustavo Ariel Rosemffet Abramovich in Buenos Aires in 1963. His interest in illustration from an early age led to high school studies at the Fernando Fader Art School. At the age of 18, he began making commercials at the Catu animation studios and he then worked for the Hanna Barbera Studios and contributed to two Argentine magazines, Billiken and Cosmik. He was working as an illustrator for children’s magazines while writing and illustrating books for children and young adults when, in 1985, he moved to France and eventually settled in Barcelona, Spain. His illustrations soon won many prizes, including a Golden Apple at BIB’89 for Pip i el color blau (Pip and the colour blue) and the National Award for Illustration for El Pirata Valiente (The brave pirate) in 1990 and the Premio Lazarillo for La pequeña Wu-li (Little Wu-li) in 1991, all written by Ricardo Alcántra. His own work La Mosca (The Fly) received recognition at the Salón del Libro de México in 2005. For more than a decade he has been teaching courses in illustration at the EINA-University School of Design and Art of Barcelona. He has also taught illustration courses for children, students and professionals worldwide, including in rural and indigenous communities. Gusti uses a wide range of techniques, pen, pencil and markers, collage and gouache, but he is above all a sketcher, drawing in his journals wherever he happens to be. He sees drawing as a tool for social inclusion and has worked extensively with children with disabilities. His story, Mallko y papá (Mallko and dad, 2014) chronicles his close relationship with his son, who has Down syndrome. The book received wide recognition, including being chosen for the 2015 IBBY Outstanding Selection of Books for Young People with Disabilities, the 2015 Junceda Award, and the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Award for the special category Disability.

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Tohby Riddle was raised in Sydney. He completed a BA in Visual Arts at the Sydney College of Arts in 1985 and then a BSc in Architecture at the University of Sydney in 1991. He began writing and illustrating picture books during his studies and also contributed cartoons to Good Weekend and The Sydney Morning Herald. His works include picture books, non-fiction and fiction for junior readers, television adaptations and several young adult and junior novels. His short stories have been anthologised in a number of collections. He has won many awards in Australia, among them the IBBY Australia–Ena Noël Award for TheTip at the End of the Street (1996) in 1998, which was also recognised as a CBCA Notable book in 1997. The Great Escape from the City Zoo (1997) was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award.  His most celebrated book Nobody Owns the Moon (2008) is widely considered one of Australia’s finest picture books. It is a thought-provoking story of friendship and dignity that won the Australian Publishers Association Design Award in 2009. In his books, he expresses wit but also complex ideas in layered and calibrated illustrations using drawing and collage. His illustrations for several inventive non-fiction titles for older readers written by Ursula Dubosarsky have also been acclaimed: The Word Spy (2008), The Return of the Word Spy (2010) and The Greatest Gatsby: A Visual Book of Grammar (2016), which was included in the 2016 White Ravens catalogue. His most recent book is The Astronaut’s Cat, published in 2020.  

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Linda Wolfsgruber is a highly acclaimed graphic artist and illustrator producing children’s book illustrations that are both atmospheric and elegant. Born 1961 in Bruneck, South Tyrol, she currently lives in Vienna. She attended art college in St. Ulrich in Gröden (Italy) and subsequently completed her training in typesetting in Munich (Germany) and in graphic design in Bruneck in 1980. After her professional training, she studied at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino (Italy) from 1981 to 1983 and then started to work as a freelancing illustrator and graphic designer in Bruneck and Vienna. She has been teaching at the Scuola d’illusstrazione di Sarmede in Italy since 1996. She also designs covers for books and CDs and makes illustrations for newspapers and magazines such as Die Zeit as well as animated films. Linda Wolfsgruber uses mixed media methods, including drawing (in charcoal or colour pencil), painting (in acrylic, tea and other alternative materials), spraying paint on paper, cutting out, gluing and crafting miniatures. In Wie war das am Anfang? (How was it in the beginning? 2009), the illustrations were assembled on several levels of transparent paper. Other important works include Daisy ist ein Gänseblümchen (Daisy is a daisy – except when it is a girl’s name, 2009), Der Elefant und der Schmetterling (The elephant and the butterfly, 2013), Arche (Ark, 2013) and The Camel in the Sun (2014). She has travelled widely, including an extended stay in Iran and describes herself as a collector of impressions. Her books have won the Österischer Staatspreis für Kinder und Jugendliteratur and the Kinder und Jugendbuchpreis der Stadt Wien several times, most recently for Wir (We, 2017), which was also included in the 2020 IBBY Honour List. Her latest titles include Der Schneeflockensammler (The snowflake collector, 2020) and Die kleine Waldfibel (The little forest primer, 2020). Linda Wolfsgruber was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016 and 2020 and was a Finalist in 2018.

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Carll Cneut was in 1969 in Roeselare, a small village on the Belgian-French border. He studied graphic design at the Saint-Lucas Institute in Ghent and then worked as an Art Director at a publicity agency. He made his illustrating debut in 1996 with the children’s book, Varkentjes van Marsepein (Piglets of marzipan), done in collaboration with Flemish author Geert De Kockere. They went on to make six more picture books together. An unerring sense of colour was already present in his very early work and he soon proved to be a master at creating eccentric and effective compositions, as in Dulle Griet (Mad Meg, 2005), which is a tribute to Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Later, his characters’ body language became an integral component of the story, as shown in O Monster eet me niet op (Monster don’t eat me, 2006). He presents universal emotions and themes with a rich artistic palette and impressive narrative skills. His often-abstract style demands an attentive viewer, one with imagination and empathy, but in return, his style stimulates the viewer’s creativity. Among his best-known works are Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal (The secret of the throat of the nightingale, 2008) by Peter Verhelst, De gouden kooi (The golden cage, 2014) by Anna Castagnoli and Heksenfee (Witchfairy, 2016) by Brigitte Minne. His most recent work is De vuurzeevlieg en andere dierenverhalen (The sea-of-firefly, 2019) is a collection of animal stories by Toon Tellegen. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have received many prestigious prizes. He was a Finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010 and was nominated again in 2018.

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Whether reimagining classical tales or using them to create relevant modern stories, Nelson Cruz brings a unique and powerful perspective to his illustrations. Born in 1957 in Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, he studied painting for two years at the gallery-studio of the painter Esthergilda Menicucci and in 1977 gave his first exhibition. He discovered a second passion drawing humour and caricature and eventually moved to São Paulo where he worked with art galleries, newspapers and publishers. He returned to Belo Horizonte and worked as an illustrator for the Diário da Tarde newspaper for five years, then in 1994, he became a fulltime independent illustrator. He has a powerful style and his themes are diverse, including both classics of children’s literature and modern works. He uses surprising angles, various vanishing points in vast scenes and extreme contrasts: light and shadow, or, large full and empty spaces. In 2001, his story, Bárbara e Alvarenga (Barbara and Alvarenga, 2001) was selected for BIB’01 and Chica e João (2000) was included in the White Ravens selection. His books have been included in the Fundação Nacional do Livro Infantil e Juvenil(FNLIJ) selection of Highly Recommended Books and for the IBBY Honour List in 2004, for Conto de escola (School tale) and in 2012 for As margens da alegria (The margins of joy). Another highly acclaimed book is his re-imagining of Alice: Alice no telhado (Alice on the roof, 2011), which was included in the Tea with Alice exhibition at the Oxford Museum in the UK in 2012 and Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal in 2013. It also featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2014. His most recent book, Sagatrissuinorana (2020), is a tribute to the Three Little Pigs fable but set in the context of one of Brazil’s greatest social environmental tragedies, the rupture of the Mariana and Brumadinho dams. Nelson Cruz was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002.

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Sydney Smith’s childhood “playing” with drawing became “serious” during his years studying for an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. After several years of poster and album cover design, he apprenticed as an illustrator of Sheree Fitch’s republished books of children’s poetry (2010–2012) and Jill Barber’s Music is for Everyone (2014). He moved to Toronto and soon received national and international recognition for the urban energy of his books such as Sidewalk Flowers in 2015 and Small in the City in 2019; both were recipients of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature — Illustrated Books. Small in the City  was also awarded the CILIP Greenaway Medal and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Sidewalk Flowers, by JonArno Lawson, is a wordless book that follows the path of a little girl through the city and was selected by IBBY Canada as welcoming gift for Syrian refugees arriving in Canada. His illustrations for The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Ellen Bogart (2016), Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz (2017), and I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott (2020) have also earned accolades, including the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 2018 for Town Is by the Sea. He has received four New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books citations (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019) and a New York Times Kids Notable (2018). In his illustrations, whether for a light-hearted story like Sidewalk Flowers or the more anguished story of a boy who stutters in I Talk Like a River, he is able to express complex and possibly unsettling emotions but also respect for the reader, whether child or adult, who feels those emotions. He uses a variety of techniques but most often ink and brush. Sydney Smith has since returned to Nova Scotia where he continues to seek and recapture “moments of the sublime found in unremarkable places”.

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The pioneering Chinese illustrator Xiong Liang was born 1975 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. From a very young age he began to study traditional Chinese ink and brush painting. He is self-taught and studied classic works of art and literature from China and the rest of the world. His art incorporates a variety of cultures and visual styles, and has always been able to work within a wealth of unconventional, interesting “alternative” influences. His creations span a diverse variety of genres, including novels, children’s books, plays, modern ink brush painting and works of illustration for adults. His first illustrated children’s book was The Little Stone Lion in 2005, which received wide recognition in China and Taiwan. In 2007, he published the first book in the now classic series, Beijing Opera Cat. He has since illustrated several books where nature, weather and the seasons play a powerful role, including Monster of the Monsoon (2015), The Solar Terms (2015) and Wandering with the Wind (2016). The stories of Little Mu Ke (2019) combine nature and fantasy that are the result of Xiong Liang’s search for folklore in China’s villages and forests. Together with Belgian author Wally De Doncker, he created Nian and the Boy (2019), which is a picture book that reflects the relationship between man and nature, as well as friendship. Since 2012, he has led an art course for children that teaches painting and develops artistic thought. This art course resulted in a published collection of nursery rhymes and a collection of poems, illustrated by the children. Xiong Liang was nominated in 2014 and was a Finalist for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award.  

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Ivar da Coll has the ability to see the world through the eyes of today’s children and to engage them in serious and important conversations. Born in Bogota in 1962 to an Italian father and Swedish mother, at the age of twelve he joined a group of puppet theatres, Cocoliche, as a puppeteer, scenographer and dressmaker. This work, which involved literature, music, painting and movies, led to his interest in writing and illustrating literature for children and young adults. In 1983, he began working with different Colombian publishers as a text book illustrator. His series of wordless picture books of the endangered mammal, Chigüiro has had an especially lasting and positive reception. Chigüiro and his other characters are strong and memorable, facing the fears and embarrassment of childhood directly. The images are simple and inquisitive and the stories are funny, intelligent, warm and imaginative. His works have received recognition in Colombia and Venezuela as well as internationally. He has illustrated the works of many well-known children’s authors, including Ana Maria Machado. His work has been included in the IBBY Honour List three times, in 1990 for Tengo miedo (I am scared), in 1996 for Hamamelis, Miosotis y el señor Sorpresa (Hamamelis, Miosotis and Mr. Surprise) and in 2004 for Pies para la princesa (Feet for the princess). Two of his books have also been selected for the White Ravens, ¡No, no fui yo! (No, it was not me!) in 2000 and A un hombre de gran nariz (To a man with a big nose) in 2008. In 2014, he was the winner of the X. Fundación SMPremio Iberoamericano de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil. Ivar da Coll was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000. 

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Dubravka Kolanović is an illustrator recognised not only for her specific artistic expression and stylisation based on delicate colours and subtle forms, but also for her travel and work in support of ecological issues. Born in Zagreb in 1973, she studied illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the US and at the Academy of Fine Art in Zagreb, where she graduated in 1998. After completing her studies, she spent three months as a guest artist at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, USA. In 2002, she attended the master workshop of the renowned Polish illustrator Jozef Wilkon in Saremede, Italy. She published her first book A Special Day at the age of 18 and since then she has illustrated over 200 picture books, books and school textbooks. She has also created more than sixty cards and two posters for UNICEF as well as other cards, puzzles and toys. Her style using delicate colours and the harmonious coordination of soft subtle forms can be seen in the illustrations for the story, Halugica (2001) by Vladimir Nazor, which was selected for the 2004 IBBY Honour List. In 2016, her picture book Bao baobab i mala Kibibi (Bao the Baobab and Little Kibibi) won the Ovca u kutiji, literary-art award for best Croatian picture book. In 2017 her book, Čarolija zagrljaja (The magic of a hug) won the same award and was also awarded the Grigor Vitez Award for Best Illustrated Croatian picture book. Her works have been selected for the BIB in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 and at the Bologna Book Fair in 2015 as part of the Croatian Guest of Honour exhibition. Her work as an activist for the Earthwatch Institute, an organization devoted to the protection of nature, has taken her to projects all over the world and has greatly influenced the themes of her illustrations. Dubravka Kolanović was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2020. 

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Born in Limassol, Dora Oronti studied Interior Design in Athens and then Graphic Design in the UK at the Exeter College of Art and Design, completing a BA in 1977. In addition to solo and group exhibitions of her own work, she has worked as an art teacher, an organiser of the Royal Academy of Dance for Cyprus as well as for TV programmes for children. She founded two art workshops for children and adults, sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education, in Episkopi from 1980 to 1982 and later in Limassol in 1998. In 1990, after winning a Fulbright scholarship, she worked as an art teacher in Pittsburgh, USA. In 1991, she began writing and illustrating children’s books. Her first series of books, 13 titles covering early Byzantine Cypriot artists, entitled Playtime in the Courtyards of our Artists, was published between 1996 and 2006. In each book, she provides a short biographical note for the featured artist and then focuses on specific artworks that she connects to objects, such as a pencil, a pin, a flag, a leaf, a butterfly or a little thread. These little props are rendered in colour with emotion and vibrancy, that lead the reader through the dreamy story. In her most recent book, Creative Playing: 10 Stories for Children, published in Greek and English in 2021, her playful but elegant illustrations are characterised by bright and clear colours with abstract shapes on textured backgrounds.  

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Piret Raud has always been fascinated by the world of black and white graphics, by small format and fine details. Born in Tallinn in 1971 into a family of children’s literature authors, she studied fine arts and printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts and worked as an illustrator. After illustrating other authors’ books for ten years, she began to write. Her inventive and fast-paced stories, usually for children from six to ten years old, are matched by her lively detailed, often black and white, drawings. Her book, Printsess Luluu ja härra Kere (Princess Lulu and Mr. Bones, 2008) received the Children’s Literature Award of the Cultural Endowment Foundation of Estonia and was an IBBY Honour List book in 2012. Her next book, Härra Linnu Iugu (Mister Bird’s story, 2009) was translated into English, German, Spanish and French and was included in the White Ravens selection in 2010. Her story collections, Natuke napakad lood (Slightly silly stories, 2012) and Teistmoodi printsessilood (Princesses with a twist, 2013) combine short nonsense fairy tales with spare black and white drawings. Her book, Trööömmmpfff ehk Eli hääl (Trööömmmpfff or Eli’s voice, 2016) was included in the 2018 IBBY Honour List. Her most recent picture book, Juurtega aed, (The Rooted Garden, 2020) in Estonian and English, addresses the issue of migration through the story of an uprooted tree in a garden with her distinctive detailed illustrations in black and white with earth tones. Piret Raud was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016 and 2020.

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Gilles Bachelet is known as an exceptional illustrator of animals, both real and imaginary. Born in 1952 in Saint Quentin in the North of France, he spent his childhood in the Pyrenees. He attended the Faculté d’arts plastiques in Paris while preparing to join the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied for five years. In 1977, he began to work for magazines with success and since then, he has been an independent illustrator for print media, publishing houses and advertising. Since 2001, he has also taught at the École Supérieur d’Art at Cambrai. His draws animals with mischievous and expressive personalities in detailed and vivid watercolours. This is exemplified in Mon chat le plus bête du monde (My cat, the silliest cat in the world, 2004), which is the story of a cat that is, in fact, an elephant. This book won the 2004 Prix Baobab, among many others. In 2012, he made a tribute to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland in Madame le Lapin blanc (Mrs White Rabbit, 2012), which received the Pépite 2012 at the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse de Montreuil. He also makes reference to several famous children’s elephants, including Babar and Elmer, in Chevalier de Ventre-à-Terre (The belly-to-earth knight, 2014); the Italian translation of which won the Premio Andersen in 2016. More recently, Une histoire d’amour (A love story) won the Libr'à Nous prize in 2018. In 2019, Gilles Bachelet received La Grande Ourse prize, awarded by the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse de Montreuil for his entire body of work. 

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Nikolaus Heidelbach lives in Koln as a freelance author and illustrator and is considered one of the most recognized, yet unconventional, artists in Germany. Born 1955 in Lahnstein, his father was a realist painter and he came into contact with art at an early age. He began painting at the age of 14 with watercolours and aquarelle on paper. He later studied German philology, art history, and theatre in Koln and Berlin. In 1980, he published his first book for adults, Bilderbogen (Pictorial broadsheet) followed by his first children’s picture book Das Elefantentreffen (The meeting of the elephants) in 1982. Since then, he has published over 50 illustrated books for children and adults. His work evades classical categories and he has a clear preference for addressing themes that are often considered taboo for children’s and youth literature, including sexuality, death, aggression, loneliness and fear. In his work, he succeeds in depicting children’s feelings and sensibilities through his own visual language and style, offering children complex and subtle imagery. His books often have an oversized format when the subject, elephants or elevators, require it and his illustrations, in watercolours and aquarelle, interpret and expand the narrative where the text ends. His best-known works include Wenn ich gross bin, werde ich Seehund (When I grow up, I’m going to be a seal, 2011), which was selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. In addition to picture books with his own texts, he has illustrated children’s books such as Der neue Pinocchio (The new Pinocchio, 1988) by Christine Nöstlinger, poems by Josef Guggenmos, stories and fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. His books have been awarded numerous prizes, and in 2000 he received the Sonderpreis der Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for his complete work. He was nominated for the 2018 and 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

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Iris Samartzi has created over eighty acclaimed books using a wide variety of techniques and materials. Born in Athens in 1979, she began collecting children’s books and drawing at a very young age. She studied at the Vakalo Art and Design College, where she obtained two Bachelor degrees, in graphic design and interior design. In 2004, she took her portfolio of personal work to various children’s book editors and received her first assignment. To date she has illustrated more than eighty books. Rather than one “signature style” she experiments with a range of textures and techniques, colours and forms, materials and graphic designs. In her recent book, Tata?? (2020), a little girl slowly builds an imaginary world from cardboard and bits of paper. In When the Sun Goes to Bed (2020) by A. Pipini she has created an accordion book that reveals a dream fold by fold and a patchwork comforter when fully opened. She won her first IBBY Greece Illustrated Book Award in 2006 and has won this Award six times as well as the Greek Graphic Design and Illustration (EBGE) Award three times, most recently in 2017 for Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer ... by A. Pipini. She has also received the Greek State Picture Book Award twice, in 2012 for Oi kaloi kai oi kakoi peirates (Good and bad pirates) by A. Papatheodoulou, which also was included in the 2012 White Ravens selection, and in 2016 for The magic world of Frederico by S. Trivizas. Also in 2016, she won the IX Compostela prize for Una última carta (One last letter) by A. Papatheodoulou. Her illustrations for Odyssey, e polimichani istoria (Odyssey, the ingenious story, 2011) by M. Angelidou were selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. Iris Samartzi has worked in schools teaching art for children and organised art workshops, including the “Paper Bag Stories” workshop at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2019. She has also been a member of the judging panel of several Greek children’s book awards and was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2020.   

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László Herbszt is one of the most prominent contemporary Hungarian illustrators. He graduated from the University of Applied Arts, majoring in graphic design. He has worked in the advertising industry, as art director of different graphic studios, designing logos, labels, catalogues and covers as well as teaching at the KREA Art School. His illustrations combine diverse styles with postmodern, pop and even steampunk influences, providing surrealistic associations and abstractions. His illustrations for A csodálatos szemüveg (The miraculous spectacles, 2011) by Finy Petra offers a rethinking of traditional children’s book illustration with its detailed, well-drawn pieces, using toned-down colours. This was followed by illustrations for A bűvös puska (The enchanted rifle, 2015) by Frankovics György and Éjféli harangszó (Midnight bell, 2017) by Fekete István. A rabbi és az oroszlán, (The rabbi and the lion, 2018) by Bajzáth Mária is a collection of tales that conjures up the golden sun, a golden death mask and geometrical art. A recent title is Ők is boldogan éltek? (Did they also live happily ever after? 2019) by Czinki Ferenc.  

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Pejman Rahimizadeh is one of Iran’s leading illustrators. He is a versatile and complex artist who has captured and enriched the rhythm and music specific to Iranian decorative art. Born in Tehran in 1970, he grew up in the nearby city of Lahjijan. He studied at the Art and Architecture department of the Azad University in Tehran, completing a Master’s in Visual Communication in 1995. He has worked in advertising, magazine publishing and the printing industry and is now a professor and freelance graphic artist and illustrator. He has illustrated over sixty books for children and young adults and designed almost 500 book and magazine covers, mainly for or about young readers. A versatile artist, he uses brilliant, transparent watercolours to create characters, adding repeated dots, lines and objects to provide dynamism in the drawing. He uses signs and symbols from Iranian visual culture – paintings, stone inscriptions, architecture and decorative art – to illustrate many of Iran's mystical and historical tales. These elements can be seen in the illustrations for Sultan wa Ahoo (The king and the deer, 2007) by Nãser Gilaki and Arash: Hekate Tir Andakhtan-e Mard-e Ghessegoo (Arash: the tale of archery of the storytelling man, 2012) by Marjan Fouladvand. His work Divãneh wa Chah (The mad man and the well, 2001) by Mohammad Reza Shams was selected for the IBBY Honour List 2004. He received the Certificate of Honour for Illustration from the Children's Book Council of Iran and a Golden Plaque at the Sharjah Illustrations Exhibition for his illustrations for the story of Rostam va Esfandiar (Rostam and Esfandiar, 2014) by Marjan Fouladvand. In addition to numerous exhibitions in Iran, his illustrations have been shown many times at the BIB in Bratislava (in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011) and at the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna in 2013 and 2017. Pejman Rahimizadeh was a Finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016.   

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Beatrice Alemagna’s illustrations are both formal and intimate. Born in Bologna in 1973, she began writing and illustrating at a young age and at 14, one of her illustrated tales was exhibited in Paris, France. She studied graphic design at ISIA - Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche in Urbino. Training in typography and graphic design provided the perfect structure for her highly sensitive and expressive visual language that includes improvising with oils or pastels and experimenting with tissue paper or wool. In 1996, she won the First Prize at International Contest Figures Futures at the Salon du Livre, Paris and then, in 1997, she moved to France where now she lives and works. She has written and illustrated 24 books, which have been translated widely. In 2006, she wrote and illustrated Un lion à Paris (A lion in Paris), which received several awards including the 2006 Prix Baobab at the Salon du livre in Montreuil and a mention at the 2007 Bologna Ragazzi Awards. The story, I corvi (The Crows of Pearblossom, by Aldous Huxley) was included in the 2008 IBBY Honour List. Un grand jour de rien (On a magical do-nothing day, 2016) won many awards, including the Landerneau Prize and the Grand prix de l'illustration in France and Gold Medal of The Original Art exhibition of the Society of Illustrators (USA). The book was also selected by the NY Times and NY City Library as one of the ten best children's books that year. In addition to working in the field of children’s literature, for over ten years she has created posters for the annual children’s film festival organised by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and she has designed fabrics, ceramics and more recently, toys. Beatrice Alemagna was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2020.

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Ryoji Arai has created picture books in his bright, bold and musical style for thirty years. Born in 1956 in Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture, Ryoji Arai loved painting and making things as a child and by the time he was a teenager, he had already begun to think about creating picture books. He majored in design at Nihon University College of Art. After graduation, he worked as an illustrator in the advertising industry. He published his first picture book in 1990 and the next year received international recognition for Yukkuri to Jojoni (Slowly, gradually). Since then, he has published more than sixty picture books and illustrated more than two hundred children’s books by other authors. He has received many honours in Japan and overseas, including the Bologna Ragazzi Award for Nazonazo no tabi (The riddle journey) in 1999.  In 2005, he received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, where the judges praised his style as “bold, mischievous, and unpredictable” and his picture books that “glow with warmth, playful good humour, and an audacious spontaneity that appeals to children and adults alike.” Another book, Taizyo orugan (A sound of Taiyo-Organ) was included in the IBBY Honour List in 2008. In 2009, he turned a live painting event into the picture book, Uchu tamago (Cosmic Egg). In 2012, Asa ni nattanode mado o akemasu yo (It’s morning so I’ll open the window) was awarded with the MOE Prize and four years later he wrote and illustrated Kyo wa sora ni marui tsuki (A full moon in the sky tonight) that won the Japan Picture Book Award in 2016. Both books are reflections of the enormity, but also the beauty and comfort, of nature. His art has been exhibited at the BIB more than ten times. 

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The wordless picture books of Suzy Lee have been recognised as unique literary and aesthetic innovations. Born in Seoul in 1974 in a home full of art and books, she studied painting at the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University and upon graduation began illustrating children’s novels.  During studies at Camberwell College of Arts in the UK she took a draft of her Master's project, Alice in Wonderland, to the Bologna Children's Book Fair and it was published by Edizioni Corraini in 2002. Her next book Mirror was published in 2003 and became the first of the Border Trilogy: Mirror (2003), Wave (2008) and Shadow (2010). All three wordless stories share the physical centre of the book, the binding, that acts as a border between fantasy and reality in the actual story. On one side of the page, we see a little girl, in a mirror, at the seaside, in a storage room and on the other side of the page we see her fantasy and imagination. Wave has received several distinctions in the USA, including the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008 and was selected for the IBBY Silent Books Honour List in 2013. Shadow was also selected as the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book in 2010 as well as the Premio FNLIJ, Brazil and Premio Albumilustrado, Gremio de Libros de Madrid, Spain. Her book Lines (2017) captures her love (and sometimes frustration) of line drawing and minimal colours in the story of a young skater. Her story of a rescued dog Kang-yi (River, 2018) was selected for the 2020 IBBY Honour List and won the Korea Book Award. Recently, she founded the independent publishing company Hintoki Press to publish her own experimental works inspired by old Korean folk motifs. Her involvement with the Vacance Project, a collective of other Korean picture book artists, led to the haunting book, Sim Cheong (2019). Suzy Lee was a Finalist for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Since 1994, Aleksejs Naumovs has been a Professor at the Art Academy of Latvia, where he graduated in 1980 from the Mural Painting Class of Professor Indulis Zarinš and later completed graduate studies in the Masterclass of Professor Eduards Kalminš. In 1987, he received a scholarship to study at Sorbonne Art Plastiques at the Ecole National des Beaux-Arts de Paris in France. He has exhibited and organised numerous exhibitions, more than 50 group exhibitions and over 100 solo exhibitions. For thirty years he has collaborated with Latvian authors to create “paintings” – his illustrations. His illustrations in the book Pasaka par Tebras bebru by M. Rungulis (Tale of the beaver of the Tebra, 2007) won him the Aleksejs Naumovs Prize for Book Publishing for his use of high-quality painted illustrations in children’s literature. His illustrations for M. Cielena’s book Pasakas par diviem (Fairytales about twosomes, 2003) have been included in the 2004 White Ravens selection and the 2006 IBBY Honour List. He has been nominated several times for the International Jānis Baltvilks Prize in Children’s and Youth Literature and Book Art: in 2008, 2011 and 2016. In 2011, he won the same award for his illustrations and design of M. Cielena’s book Princese Aurēlija un kokspoki (Princess Aurelia and the Tree Ghosts), which was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. In 2016, he received recognition for the illustrations to Kakis brīvdienās (Cat on vacation) by Inese Zandere. At present, he is working on a new animation project, the film Sirds likums (The Law of the Heart).

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Sinan Hallak is a Lebanese children’s book illustrator and a graphic designer. In addition, he is a university instructor teaching digital expression and layout design. Born 1980 in Beirut, he obtained a Master’s degree in Illustration from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA). His drawings were first published in 2009 and since then he has been part of the recent expansion of Arab children’s literature, collaborating with local, regional and multinational publishing houses. His latest book, Perfectly Different (2019), written by Sarah Tavola, a rhyming story celebrating human diversity, was published by Penguin Random House in South Africa. Besides his work as an illustrator, he has designed many picture books, young adult and adult books. He has also held a series of workshops for children, producing silent books and short animation films illustrated by seven to twelve-year-olds. His playful and colourful graphic style can be seen in My Book Got Bored (2012) by Fatima Sharafeddine, which won an award at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival and in Hungry Charbor (2016) by Samar Mahfouz Barraj, which was shortlisted for an Etisalat Award in 2016. He has also illustrated books dealing with more serious issues for children, such as Stronger than Anger (2015) by Eva Kozma, which received recognition at the Beirut International Book Fair in 2016 and more recently, The Lilac Girl (2019) by Ibtissam Barakat, about the Palestinian painter Tamam Al-Ak’hal, which received the Sheikh Zayed Award in 2020.  

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Kęstutis Kasparavičius, born in Aukstadvaris near Vilnius in 1954, is a writer and illustrator. After studies in music and choir conducting, he shifted his focus to fine arts and studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Vilnius, graduating in 1981. He has illustrated 62 books, the first appearing in 1984, including many books of classical children’s literature – such as those by Andersen, Collodi, Hoffmann and Lear. His personal favourite is Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, which he first illustrated in 1993. He has also illustrated children’s books by contemporary Lithuanian and international writers and in recent years, his own texts. He is known for the subtle colours of his watercolour painting, his precise drawings, masterfully rendered detail, innovative composition and for the elegance as well as the wit and humour in his illustrations. He constructs lyrical and poetic stories in a flowing manner using a traditional narrative model. The nonsensical stories that he creates are not only pleasant, but even appear logical: cats talk, dogs bake apple pies and mothers know how to fly. In 1993, he received the Illustrator of the Year Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and in 2003 was awarded the Bologna Illustrators’ Exhibition Award for Excellence. He has won many awards in Lithuania, including for Sodininkas Florencijus (Florencijus the gardener, 2007) and Dingęs paveikslas (The missing picture, 2007).  Mažoji žiema (The little winter, 2010) was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. His book Sapnų katytė (The dream cat, 2011) won Children’s Book of the Year in Lithuania and was included in the White Ravens selection in 2013. He was a finalist in the Nami Concours 2017 with his book Kaimynė už kampo (The neighbour around the corner). Kęstutis Kasparavičius has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times, most recently in 2020. 

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Sylvia Weve has illustrated over 150 books, including award-winning books written by the masterful and daring author Bette Westera. Born in 1954 in Utrecht and growing up in Roosendaal, she loved to draw when she was a little girl. After secondary school, she studied graphic design at the Art Academy in Arnhem and since 1978, she has lived and worked as an independent illustrator in Amsterdam. Early on in her career, Sylvia Weve drew mainly with a blunted pen and ink, showing a great capability to express emotions, movement, mood and personality with just a few lines. She illustrated several books of songs and poems by Karel Eykman and developed a strong working relationship with Rindert Kromhout, illustrating many of his children’s books from the 1980s onward. She now constructs her illustrations by combining digital and traditional techniques, merging illustration and graphic design. Sylvia Weve has also published two of her own books, including Kip en ei (Chicken and egg, 2006) that was awarded a Vlag en Wimpel. She has been awarded the most important Dutch awards for children’s literature: the Vlag en Wimpel three times, the Zilveren Penseel three times and a Gouden Penseel.  Ik leer je liedjes van verlangen, en aan je apenstaartje hangen (I’ll teach you songs of longing and swinging by your monkey tail, 2010), written by Bette Westera, was selected for BIB’11 and included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. In 2015, Doodgewoon (Dead normal), received the Gouden Griffel and Woutertje Pieterse Award and was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List. Two more award-winning books written by Bette Westera include Uit elkaar (Breaking up) and Dit is geen CoBrA (This not a CoBrA) both published in 2019, the latter was included in the 2020 White Ravens selection. In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious triannual Max Velthuijs Award for her entire oeuvre. Sylvia Weve was a Finalist for the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award.  

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Iwona Chmielewska’s illustrations are made in a distinctively subtle and melancholic style, which first received recognition in Korea and are now widely acclaimed. Born 1960 in Pabianice, she studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, graduating from the Printmaking Department in 1984. At the beginning of her career, she illustrated children’s classics such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, as well as Polish poetry. The turning point in her career came in 2003, when her books were published in Korea. In 2011, Blumka’s Tagebuch (Blumka’s diary), originally published in Germany, was published in Poland as Pamiętnik Blumki and she began to enjoy wide recognition in her own country. The book was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and included in the 2012 White Ravens selection. She won the BIB Golden Apple in 2007 for the book Thinking ABC (2006) a book for Korean children learning the English alphabet. She won the Bologna Ragazzi Award twice, in 2011 for A House of the Mind: Maum by Kim Hee-Kyunge, and in 2013 for Oczy (Eyes). Her book, abc.de was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2016. To date, she has published over 40 books, cooperating with authors and publishing houses in Poland and abroad. Her subtle style invites us to find sense in simple objects, as in Cztery zwykłe miski (Four ordinary bowls). She often uses pencils and crayons, cutting out pieces from old notebooks and journals and embroidering with one colour. Her drawings are clear, sometimes slightly naïve, realistic but poetic, always neat and studious. She leaves a lot of empty space in her illustrations and often uses blue to invoke melancholy in her stories. Iwona Chmielewska was a Finalist for the 2018 and 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Awards. 

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Julia Gukova was born in Moscow into an artistic family with a love of travel and art. She took painting lessons at an early age and graduated from the Krasnopresnenskaya Art School in the class of Vitaly Komar who was one of the founders of Soviet social art. At the same time, she studied at the workshops of Nikolai Popov and Sonya Gannushkina. In 1985, she graduated from the Department of Decorative Design of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. Her graduation work comprised illustrations for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which were published to acclaim in the same year. She worked as an illustrator for different Russian publishing houses and magazines and later worked in Europe and Canada. She has illustrated more than 50 books that have been widely translated, including classics such as Thumbelina by H.C. Andersen and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, as well as The Magic Land of Oz (2011) and the Wizard of Oz (2012) by L.F. Baum. She has also illustrated works by contemporary children’s authors, including most recently, 12 Owls by Andrey Usachev and Galina Dyadina (2020). Her illustrations are, unlike the more theatrical-decorative tradition in Russian children’s illustration, unsentimental and surreal, inviting the reader into another reality. In addition to children’s books, Julia Gukova has contributed to animated film projects and computer games as well as participated in exhibitions in Russia and throughout Europe.

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Born in 1969 in Ljubljana, Damijan Stepančič studied design and photography in secondary school and then continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in the field of design. After completing two years of design, in 1991 he decided to study at the Department of Painting where he graduated in 1996. Since then, he has devoted himself to illustrating books for young people, he has also co-created many comic books and had several independent exhibitions. The expressiveness of his illustrations is influenced by his painting skills: from the underlying colours and composition to the size of formats. He uses dry media, charcoal or a paintbrush, but also paper for collages or paint in acrylics. He has illustrated his own wordless stories (Zgodba o sidru, The story of the anchor, 2010) and collaborated with several Slovenian authors, including Tone Pavček, with whom he created Majhnice in majnice: pesmi mnogih let za mnoge bralce = Budding Songs, Maying Songs (Poems of many years for many readers), which was included in the 2010 IBBY Honour List. His most fruitful collaboration has been with Peter Svetina. In 2010, their book Modrost nilskih konjev (Hippopotamus wisdom) won the Golden Pear Award, given by Pionirska and the Ljubljana City Library, and was included in the 2011 White Ravens selection. Čudežni prstan (The magic ring, 2011) was selected as Most Beautiful Slovenian Picture Book, won the Hinko Smrekar Award for Illustrations and was included in the 2013 White Ravens selection. More recently, Ropotarna (The lumber room, 2012) won the Večernica Award and Golden Pear Award in 2013 and was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List.  In 2020, he illustrated the poster for International Children’s Book Day in 2020, sponsored by IBBY Slovenia. His most recent works include his own Svetilnik (The Lighthouse, 2019) and Negotove pesmi (Uncertain poems, 2020) with Barbara Gregorič Gorenc. Damijan Stepančič was nominated for the 2018 and 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Awards.

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Elena Odriozola is a delicate and intimate illustrator, creating complex fictional universes for her stories often with new narrative forms and personal interpretation of the texts. Born in San Sebastián in 1967, she studied art and decoration. After working in an advertising agency for eight years, in 1997 she began working as a full-time illustrator. Since then, she has illustrated over 100 books as well as posters and book covers. She designed the printed material for the Basque campaign for reading promotion Bularretik Mintzora in 2007, which later became the Mintzoan kux-kux project in 2017. Her books have been published in several Spanish and foreign languages and her work has been recognised with numerous awards. Her illustrations were selected for the Bologna Book Fair in 2010 and the BIB in 2003, 2013, 2015 and 2021. She has won the Basque Award for Illustration twice: once in 2009 for her illustrations for Aplastamiento de las gotas (The smashing of the raindrops, 2008) by Julio Cortázar and again in 2013 for Tropecista (Tumbler, 2012) by Jorge Gonzalvo. Her work has been selected for the IBBY Honour List twice: in 2006 for Atxiki sekretua (Keep the secret, 2004) by Patxi Zubizarreta and in 2014 for Eguberria (Christmas, 2012) by Juan Kruz Igerabide. She won the Junceda International Award 2014 for her original work for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which also earned her a BIB Golden Apple in 2015. In the same year, she won the National Award for Illustration. Her drawing is subtle and efficient, both technically and conceptually, and she successfully uses many narrative forms: in Frankenstein she created a paper puppet theatre; in En el Bosque (In the forest, 2018) she created a collection of nine finely detailed illustrated cards that can be combined in many ways to tell infinite stories; and in Sentimento Encontrados (Discovered feelings, 2019), she uses a house cut longitudinally to follow the stories of its inhabitants. Her illustrations for Sentimento Encontrados won the BIB Grand Prix in 2021. Elena Odriozola was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018 and was a Finalist in 2020.  

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Anna Bengtsson was born in 1951 and grew up in the Swedish countryside, near Linköping. She studied graphic design and illustration at Konstfack (University of Arts, Crafts, and Design) in Stockholm and in 1983 she began illustrating picture books. To date, she has produced more than 40 books, more than 20 of which feature her own text. In 1994, she won the major Swedish illustrator’s prize, the Elsa Beskow-plaketten, for two of her books: Fredrik Matsson flyttar (Fredrik Matsson is moving, 1992) by George Johansson, and Banvaktsbarn (Children at the railway, 1993), which she produced together with her mother, the teacher and writer Margareta Bengtsson. She went on to illustrate three more historical books with her mother, Farfars mammas soffa (Granddad’s mother’s sofa, 2014), all of them depicting the poverty endured in Sweden in the past. Her story Det kittlar när löven kommer (It tickles when the leaves come, 2006) was selected for the IBBY Honour List in 2008. She uses a range of artistic media – ink wash, egg tempera, watercolour, acrylic and gouache – and she is able to craft an engaging story from ordinary events, as in En hög med snö (A heap of snow, 2012) where children discover a heap of new snow, and I garderoben – Väskor pratar resor (In the wardrobe, 2020) of memories told to the new red suitcase by the dusty bags and backpacks in the wardrobe. In addition to illustrating, Anna Bengtsson has been an educator and lecturer for colleagues, librarians, and pre-school teachers.  

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Catherine Louis is best known for her chinoiseries, as she calls them, illustrations influenced by calligraphy and graphic design. She was born in 1963 in La Neuveville, a small town in the Bernese Jura, surrounded by vineyards. Inspired by the workshop and artwork of a neighbour, she studied at the École d’arts visuels in Bienne in 1987 and illustrated a children’s picture book for her final degree project. She continued her studies in Strasbourg (France) at the École des arts décoratifs. In 1988, her first picture book was published in German: Die Möwe Fridolin (Fridolin the seagull). An early work, Léon et Ciboulette (1996) was included in the White Ravens selection in 1997 and the IBBY Honour List in 1998. She began exploring Chinese calligraphy and started collaborating with Picquier, an Asian literature specialist publisher, creating Liu et l’oiseau (Liu and the Bird) in 2003, followed by Mon imagier chinois (My little book of Chinese words) in 2004, which were both exhibited at the BIB in 2005. Mon imagier chinois was selected for the White Ravens in 2005 and won the prestigious Prix Sorcières in 2006 and Liu et l’oiseau was included in the 2006 IBBY Honour List. She has collaborated with many authors, especially Marie Sellier, including Le rat m’a dit… (What the rat told me, 2008), Mô et le maître du temps (Mô and the master of time, 2013) and Les yeux de Bianca (Bianca’s eyes, 2018). To date she has created 130 works: illustrated storybooks, collections of poems, picture books, leporellos, books as objects, song collections, early-reader books, and even books for artists. She employs a range of techniques, line drawings, collage, paper cut-outs, linocuts and digital work for her illustrations. Catherine Louis has worked for the press, created posters for cultural events, illustrated theatre programmes, as well as held workshops and courses for children and adults. Her work has been exhibited numerous times both in Switzerland and internationally.  

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The illustrations of Mustafa Delioğlu are a unique combination of West and East cultural legacies. Born in Erzincan in 1949, he is a self-taught artist and began his professional career at one of the first advertisement agencies in Turkey as a cartoon background artist and designer. Since setting up his own studio in 1974, he has produced paintings, book covers and children’s books. He also worked as an editor and illustrator of traditional joke books for children. He is currently one of the most productive illustrators of children’s books in Turkey, having illustrated more than a thousand books to date and worked with all of the major publishers of Turkey as well as publishers in the USA, Europe, the Far East and Australia. His art can be admired in many forms, from fantastic paintings to line drawings or book illustrations and his classical paintings and illustrations have featured in solo and group exhibitions. His illustrations are both understandable to children and have their own fresh and original aesthetic: the lines float freely on paper, his colours have no borders, no rules, but together they create a harmonious whole. Mustafa Delioğlu has won several awards in Turkey, including the Modern Journalists and Writers Association Best Illustration and Design Award in 2005 and 2006. His best-known works include Dunyanin Butun Kedileri (All the cats of the world, 2005) by Cetin Oner and Gucunu Yitiren Kral (The lost king, 2011) by Pakize Ozcan. His most recent work is Yesil Sahmeran Masali (The tale of the green Sahmeran, 2020) by Hamdan Belivermis. Mustafa Delioğlu was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000.

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The creator of several modern classics in Ukrainian children’s literature, Kost’ Lavro (Lavro Kostiantyn Tykhonovych) was born in 1961 in Novoukrainka, a city in the Kirovohrad region. He studied at the Republican Art School and graduated from the Faculty of Book Design of Ukrainian Academy of Printing. His best-known works include Abetka (ABC, 1999) and Kotyk ta Pivnyk (The cat and the rooster, 2001) which is based on the popular Ukrainian fairytale and has been translated into English and French. In 2002, his illustrations for Kozak Mamaryha (Mamaryha the Cossack) were included in the White Ravens selection. His illustrations for the book Nich Pered Rizdvom (A night before Christmas) by Mykola Hohol received the Lesia Ukrainka National Prize in 2006 and title “The Best Book for Children 2007” at the All-Ukrainian contest “The Book of the Year”. His unique and immediately recognizable drawings can also be found in Farbovanyi Lys (The painted fox) by Ivan Franko. In all his books, he uses intense, saturated but soft colours and the graphics skilfully recreate the spirit of Ukrainian naive art – its stormy fairy tale-like imagination and good-humoured irony. The illustrations reflect not only the scenes of the plot, but also the feelings of the heroes, their experiences, thoughts and emotions. In 2010, he received the Taras Shevchenko National Prize for his illustrations of classics of Ukrainian literature and his monumental paintings based on Ukrainian folk tales for the State Academic Puppet Theatre in Kyiv. In 2017, he was rewarded with the title The Honoured Artist of Ukraine. 

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David McKee has created some fifty picture books, filled with warmth, humour and sense of fun that have an enduring appeal. He was born in 1935 in Devon and began drawing as a child. Following the advice of his art teacher he went to Plymouth Art College and supported himself drawing cartoons for national newspapers. His first picture book, Two Can Toucan, appeared in 1964 and three years later in 1967, the first Mr Benn story, Mr Benn: Red Knight, appeared; the stories continued to 2001 and later became a BBC television series. In 1968, Elmer, The Story of a Patchwork Elephant was published by Dobson Press. When Andersen Press reissued the book in 1989 in glorious technicolour, Elmer became the iconic elephant recognised across the world and the stories became known for their celebration of individuality and tolerance. The illustrations in Elmer are examples of his distinctive style of bright colours, interesting perspectives and surreal details, and show the influence of Paul Klee and Fauves artists such as Derain and Matisse. In 1980, his book, Not Now, Bernard immediately sparked controversy as the child in the story, ignored by the adults in his world, is eaten by a monster. Nonetheless, it is a favourite with children and has remained in print for 40 years. David McKee has often returned to the subject of conflict and the futility of war, as in Tusk Tusk (1968), the story of warring elephants, and Two Monsters in which monsters living on opposite sides of a mountain reduce it to rubble in their rage. Two Monsters was awarded the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1987. In response to the Iraq war, he wrote The Conquerors (2004), a tale of how the victims overcome military might through cultural resilience rather than violence. David McKee was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and, in 2020, he was awarded the British Book Awards Illustrator of the Year and received the Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award. 

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Kadir Nelson has created acclaimed illustrations and oil paintings for many powerful stories about Africans and African Americans. Born 1974 in Washington D.C., he grew up in Atlantic City, NJ and San Diego, CA. He did not initially imagine a career in the arts, but began painting and drawing at a young age and under the teaching of his uncle, the artist Michael Morris, he learned many of the foundational principles of art, including light, colouring and perspective. He received a scholarship to the Pratt Institute to study architecture, but soon realised that his first love was illustration. Upon graduating with Honours in 1996, he went to work at the film production company, DreamWorks, where he met Debbie Allen, who requested that he illustrate her children’s book, Brothers of the Knight (1999), a contemporary retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. This became his first published children’s book and since then he has illustrated nearly 35 books for children, including several he has authored. He uses a variety of media from watercolour and collage, but is best known for his dramatic oil paintings. While the subjects of his illustrations have ranged from young animals to imaginary giants to majestic scenery, his primary focus has been on Africans and African Americans, as a way for children of colour to see themselves represented in books, as well as for all children to acknowledge the diversity of their world. He has illustrated books about African Americans, Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (2011) as well as about notable individuals, including Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, all of which received recognition from the American Library Association with the Coretta Scott King Award. In 2020, he won the Caldecott Medal, the highest distinction for a US illustrator of children’s literature, for The Undefeated by Alexander Kwame, an ode to the resilience and strength of black life and history in America.  

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