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.
Jon Klassen is the creator of the #1 New York Times bestseller I Want My Hat Back, which was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. He returned with another hat and another thief in This Is Not My Hat, which won the Caldecott Medal became a New York Times bestseller.
He is also the illustrator of House Held Up By Trees, a picture book written by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Ted Kooser, as well as Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson, which won the Governor General’s Award; Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett; and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood.
Jon Klassen has worked as an illustrator for feature animated films, music videos, and editorial pieces. His animation projects include design work for DreamWorks Feature Animation as well as LAIKA Studios on their feature film Coraline. Other work includes designs for a BBC spot used in the coverage of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, which won a 2010 BAFTA award. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.
