Annie Barrows writes for both grownups and children. If you’re a grownup, read this paragraph:

Annie Barrows is the co-author, with her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer, of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, published by the Dial Press in 2008. An international best-seller, translated into 38 languages, the novel was adapted into a feature film in 2018. Her best-selling second novel, The Truth According to Us, was published in 2015. Annie lives in Berkeley, California, with her family.

If you’re a kid, read this paragraph:

Wow! Was that boring or what? Annie has written a bunch of books for kids. In fact, she has written NINETEEN books for kids, and all of them are very very good. Mostly, they’re funny too. She has written the award-winning series Ivy + Bean; the also-award-winning Magic Half and its sequel, Magic in the Mix; Nothing, for young adult readers (that means it has bad words in it); a picture book called What John Marco Saw (don’t worry—she didn’t draw the pictures); and The Best of Iggy, which is the first book in a new series about—you guessed it!—a kid named Iggy who does not play the cello, plant flowers by the side of the road, or learn his lesson and become a better person. Still, he’s a pretty great kid.

Sophie Blackall is a Brooklyn-based Australian artist. She has illustrated over forty-five books for children, including the Ivy and Bean series, and has twice received the Randolph Caldecott Medal, in 2016 for Finding Winnie and in 2019 for Hello Lighthouse. She has also written and illustrated books for grown ups.

Blackall has collaborated with many notable authors, including Annie Barrows, Kate DiCamillo, Rukhsana Khan, Meg Rosoff and Judith Viorst.

Her editorial illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York City MTA and the MoMA Design Store. She has worked internationally with UNICEF and Save the Children as an artist and advocate for global health and literacy initiatives.

"Blackall, who elevates everything she illustrates, has a knack for using clever details to get the humor across."--Booklist

"Khan has an ideal collaborator in Sophie Blackall, whose Chinese ink-and-watercolor drawings convey exquisite detail and precise emotion. Like all the best picture books, "Big Red Lollipop" amply rewards close examination." - New York Times

"One of the best picture-book artists around, Blackall offers winsome art that is interesting in its use of perspective, perceptive in its depiction of family dynamics, and just plain adorable in its effort to make ferrets fetching. This is a book that's clever in every sense of the word: skillful, original, and witty." -Booklist