Authors & Illustrators

When Jason Chin won the 2022 Caldecott Medal for Watercress, he immediately called the book's author, Andrea Wang. But the next conversation with Wang made Chin smile the most.

The 2015 Caldecott winner explains why the award should go to the illustrator and the author, and reveals his memorable middle-of-the-night DM from that year's Newbery winner, Kwame Alexander.

Tae Keller, who won the 2021 Newbery Medal for When You Trap a Tiger, talks about wanting to give back after the "unfathomable stroke of luck" of winning the award.

The 2020 Newbery Medalist shares his favorite moments from winning, including a Kwame confusion, and tells the 2024 winner to enjoy the moment but not expect to get a lot of work done.

Once again, Messner is connecting kid lit creators and educators for World Read Aloud Day in February.

The new year brings new education laws to states across the country; a young publisher's posthumous fundraiser continues to help others; Jeff Kinney honored by the Educational Book and Media Association; BCALA seeks scholarship submissions; and more in this edition of News Bites.

The director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project discusses expectations for 2024, plus a look at new book-related laws for 2024, a Massachusetts police chief apologizes for an officer searching for a book at middle school, and the story of a Russian librarian who called out the fascism of removing LGBTQIA+ books.

From censorship and AI to book fairs and the state of middle grade publishing, it's been an eventful year. Among those driving SLJ's most viewed posts of 2023: Jeff Kinney, Moms for Liberty, and stellar librarians. Ah, and those Best Books.

Remembering those who died this year.