Nina Crews
BIO
NINA CREWS is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. Her first book, One Hot Summer Day, was published in 1995 and is still in print in hardcover and paperback. Other favorite titles include I’m Not Small, Below, The Neighborhood Mother Goose, Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change (written by Tameka Fryer Brown), A Girl Like Me (written by Angela Johnson), and Seeing Into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright (poems by Richard Wright). Nina’s work has been recognized by the ALA Notable Committee, the Black Caucus of the ALA, The Horn Book, Junior Library Guild, NCTE, CCBC, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, and many others. She is the recipient of the 2023 New York State Library Association’s Empire State Award. Nina is the daughter of children’s book authors and illustrators Donald Crews and Ann Jonas. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.
EXTRAORDINARY MAGIC: THE STORYTELLING LIFE OF VIRGINIA HAMILTON
What does it take for a shy young girl to become a writer? For Virginia Hamilton, it took a sense of freedom, powerful dreams, a love of history, and family stories. Extraordinary Magic: The Storytelling Life of Virginia Hamilton tells Hamilton’s story in sixteen interconnected free verse poems. Readers are introduced to her close-knit extended family and her early life in Yellow Springs, OH where stories and family lore were regularly shared.
Virginia Hamilton was the first Black woman to win the Newbery Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. In addition, she won the National Book Award, a MacArthur “Genius” grant, multiple Coretta Scott King Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and numerous others. Her books include M.C. Higgins, the Great, The Planet of Junior Brown, and The People Could Fly. Her success paved the way for BIPOC creators working today. Extraordinary Magic is the first picture book biography of this important African American children’s author.