2015 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winners

2015 Writer Award

Chieri Uegaki

Like her heroine, Chieri Uegaki is very persistent. The Japanese-Canadian author, who learned English as a second language, parlayed her childhood love of writing into a university degree in creative writing. Years later, she reworked a story from her school days to submit to writing contests. It caught a publisher’s eye and became her first book. Her stories feature lively girls whose independent spirit is inflected with their Japanese heritage. Chieri lives in British Columbia.

Photo credit: Paul Mears

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin

Kids Can Press

Inspired by her grandfather, a violinist, Hana signs up for a talent show–even though she’s a beginner. Despite her doubts and stage fright, hard work and imagination save the day!

2015 Illustrator Award

Chris Haughton

An Irish illustrator and designer now living in London, Chris Haughton comes by his desire to tell stories visually from teaching young children in Asia without a shared language. Containing few but well-chosen words, his three award-winning books have been widely translated. In Shh! We Have a Plan, Chris’s masterful use of elements like color, rhythm and slapstick humor will delight children in any language.

Photo credit: Courtesy Walker Books, London

Shh! We Have a Plan

Candlewick Press

Four friends want to capture a colorful bird. They have a plan–which fails comically. They try again, and again, until the littlest friend–the one who gets shh’d–shows that his gentler way works best.

2015 Honor Books

  • Writer Honor

    Adam Auerbach
    Edda: A Little Valkyrie’s First Day of School
    Christy Ottaviano Books
    On the first day of kindergarten, a Valkyrie from Aasgard has trouble adjusting to human rules. Can she learn to make friends? 

    Fun Facts

  • Writer Honor

    Alan Rabinowitz
    A Boy and a Jaguar
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
    How struggling with a stutter helped an animal-loving boy find his voice as a wildlife conservationist.

  • Writer Honor

    Misty Copeland
    Firebird
    G.P. Putnam’s Sons
    Poetically, a prima ballerina shows young dancers how to take on, and be transformed by, great ballet roles.

    Fun Facts

  • Illustrator Honor

    Evan Turk
    Grandfather Gandhi
    Atheneum
    The 12-year-old grandson of a hero to millions fears that he can't measure up.

    Fun Facts

  • Illustrator Honor

    Mike Curato
    Little Elliot, Big City
    Henry Holt)
    The adventures of Elliot, a small, polka-dotted elephant—from Brooklyn!

    Fun Facts