Yuyi Morales

Yuyi Morales is a Mexican-American children’s book author and illustrator. Yuyi moved to the United States in 1994, and during her first years she remembers that she had no job, no friends and she barely spoke a few words in English. When she took her son, Kelly  to a public library in the city of San Francisco, she was amazed and inspired by the section of children’s books. Morales learned English by reading to her son Kelly who did not know or care if she mispronounced some words, and she could always use the illustrations to show something she did not know. She felt so inspired by those vivid colors and illustrations from the books that she had been reading to her son, she wondered whether she could make picture books like those. That journey would become her book Dreamers, which received the 2019 Caldecott Honor.  She has also won six Pura Belpre Medals, four Pura Belpre Honors (the most of any illustrator),  a Latino Book Award, a Latino Literary Award, a Christopher Award and a Jane Addams Book Award.