Book Bag
Kevin Maillard is a contributor to the New York Times and a professor of law at Syracuse University. He is the author of Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he lives with his family in Manhattan and Vermont.
Rafael López is a New York Times-bestselling, award winning illustrator who has illustrated numerous acclaimed picture books, including The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly (New York Times bestsellers), Dancing Hands (Pura Belpré Medal), and Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You (Schneider Award), among others. His illustrations bring diverse characters to children's books, and he is driven to create books that reflect and honor the lives of all young people. Rafael is the recipient of three Pura Belpré medals, the Schneider Family Book Award, the Jane Addams Book Award, and the Tomás Rivera Book Award, as well as the illustrator of three New York Times bestsellers. He was the first guest artist of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum and founder of the Urban Art Trail, a series of large-scale community murals around the U.S. Rafael lives in San Diego and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.