Javaka Steptoe.

It’s always been Unbound’s mission to increase a love of books and reading in readers of all ages. Children are perhaps the most important readers of all - catch ‘em young, and they’ll be readers their whole lives. That’s why we continue to expand our children’s programming. The “Authors in the Schools” project is still growing, and many of the participants will then be giving readings on Saturday at the festival itself.

One of the children’s authors we’re very excited about for next year is Javaka Steptoe.

(c) Hidden Chapel Studios

Javaka Steptoe won the 2017 Caldecott Medal for his picture book biography Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (Little, Brown). The book won many other honors, too, including the 2017 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and multiple starred reviews. His debut picture book, In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers (Lee & Low Books, ), earned him a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, in addition to a nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature Work at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards. Since that time, Steptoe has illustrated and/or written more than a dozen books for youth readers, collaborating with some of the top names in the business—Walter Dean Myers, Nikki Grimes and Karen English. Javaka Steptoe travels extensively reading and conducting workshops at schools, libraries, museums, and conferences across the country and internationally.

We can’t wait to welcome him to Unbound!