MARLA’S ILLUSTRATIONS FOR ALL THE WORLD WERE JUST RECOGNIZED WITH A 2010 CALDECOTT HONOR MEDAL!!
Marla Frazee is the illustrator of many award-winning picture books including a 2009 Caldecott honor for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, accolades for The Seven Silly Eaters, written by Mary Ann Hoberman, Hush, Little Baby – an illustrated folk song, Harriet You’ll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox, and Susan Myers’s Everywhere Babies, a Horn Book Fanfare book, School Library Journal’s Best Book of 2001, and a Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award. Her illustrations in Mrs. Biddlebox, written by Linda Smith earned the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrator’s Golden Kite award for picture book illustration. Frazee’s most recent illustrations for All the World, written by Liz Garton Scanlon were just honored with a 2010 Caldecott Honor medal. Frazee received the Excellence in Illustration Award presented by the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California and graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she teaches children’s book illustration. She lives with her husband and their three sons in Pasadena, and works in a studio cabin in the backyard.
Allyn Johnston’s career in children’s book publishing spans the decades and has earned her recognition as editor of many award-winning authors and illustrators including: Marla Frazee, Lois Ehlert, Cynthia Rylant, Avi, and Mem Fox. She started her career as a marketing assistant at Clarion Books in 1985 and has since worked as an editor, senior editor, executive editor, and editorial director for various publishing houses. Allyn is currently the Vice-President and Publisher of Beach Lane Books, her own imprint for Simon & Schuster, and she edited Marla Frazee’s 2009 and 2010 Caldecott Honor books.
John Green is the Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. When he was little, he wanted to be an earthworm scientist. (There is a word for such a person: oligochaetologist.) But he killed off his entire earthworm farm due to his general inability to care for pets. Later, he made a list of things he was good at. The list included ‘telling lies’ and ‘sitting.’ So he became a “writer.” (www.sparksflyup.com) Green’s latest novel entitled Paper Towns (2008) appeared on the top five New York Times Bestseller list and won the 2009 Edgar Award for best Young Adult novel. His upcoming novel, co-authored with David Leviathan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, will be released on April 6, 2010. In other exciting news, the movie rights for all three of Green’s currently published novels have been acquired and are in the process of being translated into screenplays. (Looking for Alaska: Paramount Pictures, An Abundance of Katherines: East of Doheny, Paper Towns: Mandate Pictures). Green is writing the screenplays for both An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns.
Gerald McDermott has long been an internationally acclaimed author and illustrator whose vibrant picture books have received a Caldecott Medal, two Caldecott Honors, among other awards. Caldecott medal winner Arrow to the Sun has become an American children’s literature classic. The New York Times refers to McDermott as “not only a picture book artist of the first rank, but also one of our most gifted retellers of myth and folktale.” A Joseph Campbell Foundation fellow and consultant on mythology in education, McDermott was invited to create art programs for the children at several Native American pueblos in New Mexico, a 17-year involvement portrayed in the Emmy-award winning PBS documentary, Colores; An Artist’s Journey (http://vodpod.com/watch/295741-gerald-mcdermott-the-trickster-tales). An exhibition of original illustrations from McDermott’s books is currently on national tour (www.nccil.org) and his art was recently exhibited in Japan and Korea. Well known for his popular trickster tales, including Raven and Anansi the Spider, both Caldecott Honor books, his most recent trickster tale is Pig-Boy. McDermott is currently illustrating a four-volume collection based on the work of his friend and mentor, Joseph Campbell: Joseph Campbell’s Favorite Tales.
Linda Sue Park is the author of eight novels including A Single Shard, which won the 2002 Newbery Medal and was deemed a 2002 ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and When My Name was Keoko, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Most of her novels are historical fiction with strong elements of Korean history and culture, which is inspired by her heritage. In addition, she has written six picture books and a collection of poetry. The daughter of Korean immigrants, Ms. Park grew up outside of Chicago and began writing poems and stories when she was four years old. She first published a haiku in a children’s magazine when she was only nine! Ms. Park graduated with a degree in English from Stanford University and continued her studies in Dublin and London, as well as taught English as a second language to college students before launching her career as a children’s book author. Her first novel, Seesaw Girl, was published in 1999. Ms. Park currently resides in Upstate New York with her husband, two children, and their Border Terrier, Fergus. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys cooking, traveling, watching movies, playing scrabble, trivia, and crossword puzzles.