An Illustrated Treasury of African American Read-Aloud Stories: More than 40 of the World's Best-Loved Stories for Parent and Child to Share
Christian Clayton has a B.F.A. from the Art Center College of Design where he is now on the faculty.  He lives in Pasadena, California.Jan                 Spivey Gilchrist's career as a fine artist has spanned a quarter of a century.                  Ms. Gilchrist has won numerous                 awards and commissions                 throughout her career,                 including the Coretta Scott                 King Award forNathanielTalking,                 and a Coretta Scott King                 Honor Book forNight onNeighborhood                 Street.Ms.                 Gilchrist's works have appeared on national television. Her illustrations                 have been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, Boston                 Globe, Washington Post, L.A.Times , USA Today, Chicago Tribune,                 Ebony Magazine, and others. She                 was inducted in the International Hall of Fame for Writers of                 African Descent in October of 2000. She was also inducted in the                 prestigious Society of Illustrators in 2001.Jan                 Spivey Gilchrist has four degrees: a BS in Art Education from                 Eastern Illinois University, an MA in painting from the University                 of Northern Iowa, an MFA in writing for children from Vermont                 College, and a doctoral degree in English from Madison University.                 She also has a grown son, William, who as a boy was the model                 she used for William and the Good Old Days by Eloise                 Greenfield. She also has a daughter, Ronke, and a granddaughter,                 Raena                 Bethany Prude.Jan                 and her husband, Dr. Kelvin Gilchrist, live in a suburb of Chicago,                 Illinois.Christy Hale is an illustrator, designer, art director and writer. As a young child she liked to draw on tiny pads of paper. She tore off these “illustrations” and tucked them inside books along side the appropriate writing passage. Christy has made books her whole life. She studied calligraphy, bookbinding, letterpress and all other means of fine art and commercial printing, typography, design, and illustration.She received a B.A. in Fine Arts and Masters in Teaching at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, then worked as an art educator for several years. She relocated to New York to pursue illustration, earned a B.F.A. in illustration at Pratt Institute, then worked in publishing as a designer and art director. She taught at the Center for Book Arts and in the Communication Design department at Pratt—all while simultaneously beginning an illustration career. Christy has illustrated many books for children. Her book Elizabeti's Doll was an ALA Notable, and received a pointer from Kirkus as well as two starred reviews from School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Publisher's Weekly called the book “A little slice of perfection.”After 9/11 Christy and her family moved from Brooklyn to Northern California. She continues working as an illustrator, designer/art director, and as an educator, writing for Scholastic Professional and Instructor Magazine.No BioMICHAEL McCURDY   was born in New York City in 1942 and grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (where for a year (1965-1966) his roommate was David McPhail, now the well-known children's book author and illustrator). Another future children's book illustrator, Wallace Tripp, shared the busy printmaking department with McCurdy and McPhail. Michael created his first wood engraving there in 1962.        He was graduated as well from Tufts University in Medford, MA (B.F.A., M.F.A.), and in 1966 was awarded a traveling scholarship from the Museum School.Michael has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA 1966-1977), Concord Academy (Concord, MA 1972-1975), various adult printmaking courses in Concord and Lincoln, and at Wellesley College Library's Book Arts Program, 1976. He also has had many exhibitions of his work, and currently over 200 books contain his illustrations. He used to lecture extensively as well, but is not available  now for such activities.Michael has  illustrated books he has authored as well. These include Toward the Light(a collection of his wood engravings with accompanying anecdotes, published in Canada);The Illustrated Harvard: Harvard University in Wood Engravings and Words; The Devils Who Learned to be Good; Hannah's Farm: The Seasons on an Early American Homestead; The Old Man and the Fiddle, andTrapped by the Ice: Shackleton's Amazing Antarctic Adventure. He edited and illustrated an abridged version of Frederick Douglass's first autobiography, renamedEscape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, published in 1994. His latest authored and illustrated book is,An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon.Michael's wood engravings and drawings are found in trade books for both adults and children and in fine limited editions.