Christian Robinson
Christian Robinson (born August 2, 1986) is an American illustrator of children's books and an animator. He is based in Sacramento, California and has worked with The Sesame Street Workshop and Pixar Animation Studios. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. Personal life. Christian grew up in Los Angeles, California, raised by his grandmother in a one-bedroom home shared by six people. He began his career in animation until a mentor, Ben Butcher, inspired his shift toward children's books. He lived for seven years in San Francisco before relocating to Sacramento. Awards. Christian  was awarded a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor and a Caldecott Honor for "Last Stop on Market Street". The book also won the 2016 Newbery Medal, for author Matt de la Peña who said of his process, "I know editors often want to keep writers and illustrators apart, but I feel this story really benefited from the fact that I knew Christian was going to be the illustrator. I printed out his piece with the boy on the bus with his grandma and had it next to me as I wrote the story. That piece set the tone, I think . I just followed it into the story." He was the winner of the 2014 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for "Rain!". He was also awarded the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for "Josephine" in 2015. "Gaston" was selected in 2015 for an IRA Teachers' Choices Reading List award. and was also selected as a 2015 Notable Children's Book for younger readers by the Association for Library Service to Children.