Jacqueline Woodson is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She is the 2022 Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence, and was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, as well as the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and an NAACP Image Award. She also wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a National Book Award finalist. Her dozens of books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and the picture book Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Leo Espinosa is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and designer from Bogotá, Colombia. His picture books include Islandborn (by Junot Diaz), for which he was awarded a Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor, No More Naps (by Chris Grabenstein), and Goldfish on Vacation (by Sally Lloyd-Jones). His award-winning illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Pictoplasma, 3x3, and the Society of Illustrators (Gold and Silver Medals). In addition, he has given multiple lectures and workshops at schools and institutions such as Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute, as well as serving on the faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design.

MULTI-AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR TEAMING UP FOR THE FIRST TIME!

BOTH NOSTALGIC AND TIMELY: Set during the time of Jacqueline's childhood, the text and art are imbued with a wonderful sense of nostalgia, but are still totally relatable for today's kids.

CELEBRATES THE JOYS OF SUMMER INDEPENDENCE: Once school lets out, the kids are on their own and free to use their imaginations and creativity.

MODELS LEADERSHIP SKILLS: On their own, these kids work out what is fair and how to share.

EVOCATIVE TEXT and GORGEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS: Jacqueline's lyrical text andLeo's vivid artwork is full of movement and free-spirited joy.

DIVERSE CITY NEIGHBORHOOD: The kids playing together on this Brooklyn block are from a wide variety of backgrounds.

WONDERFUL SENSE OF COMMUNITY: Both text and art reflect a great sense of freedom for the neighborhood kids, but also a sense of warmth and safety, everyone knowing their neighbors and looking out for one another.