Mac Barnett, the 2025-2026 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, is a
New York Times best-selling author of stories for children. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages and sold more than five million copies worldwide. Mac Barnett's books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three
New York Times/ New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book Awards, three E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards, the
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Germany's Jugendliteraturpreis, China's Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award, the Netherlands' Zilveren Griffel, and Italy's Premio Orbil. He is the cocreator, with Jon Klassen, of the Substack
Looking at Picture Books, as well as
Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. Mac Barnett lives in Oakland, California.
Christian Robinson is the best-selling illustrator of several books for children, including
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book;
Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett;
Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book;
The Bench by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex; and
Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book. Christian Robinson lives in California.