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2015 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winners

2015 EJK Award Poster

Press Release: 2015 Winners Announced

2015 Writer Award Winner

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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

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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!

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2015 Illustrator Award Winner

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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

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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.

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2015 Award Honorees

Writer Award Honoree

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? 

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Writer Award Honoree

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.

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Writer Award Honoree

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.

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Illustrator Award Honoree

Evan Turk

Grandfather Gandhi

Atheneum

The 12-year-old grandson of a hero to millions fears that he can’t measure up.

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Illustrator Award Honoree

Mike Curato

Little Elliot, Big City

Henry Holt

The adventures of Elliot, a small, polka-dotted elephant—from Brooklyn!

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