Keats Illustrator Award Goes to Shadra Strickland

 Shadra Strickland was recently named the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator of 2009, just weeks after receiving the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award on January 26, 2008 for her illustrations in the picture book Bird (Lee & Low, 2008).

The honors were the furthest things from Strickland’s mind when she and I first met last June on a return flight to New York from the American Library Association conference in San Diego. At the time, she was an enthusiastic young passenger sharing the proofs of her drawings for Bird with her seatmate. more » » »