2017 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award
Writer Award
A Piece of Home, Jeri Watts, Candlewick Press
When Hee Jun’s family moves to West Virginia from Korea, it’s hard to adjust. In Korea Hee Jun was a “regular” boy; now he is different. Everything is different. In time, he learns English and makes friends. At a friend’s, he spots flowers like those in his grandmother’s garden in Korea. He brings a shoot to his grandmother, and they plant ”a piece of home.”
Jeri Watts published her first picture book, Keeper, 20 years ago. She has written in other genres since then, but came back to picture books for A Piece of Home. As a professor and veteran public school teacher, Jeri knows the stories that pass through those classrooms: This book was inspired by a student. A lifelong Virginian, Jeri lives with her husband in Lynchburg.
Illustrator Award
Daniel Finds a Poem, Micha Archer, Nancy Paulsen Books
Daniel wants to write a poem, so he asks some friends—a spider, a squirrel and other creatures in the park—”What is poetry?” Each has a different ideas, and based on their views, Daniel composes a poem of his own. This book beautifully conveys the idea that poetry is all around us, wherever we can see it or feel it.
As an illustrator, Micha Archer earned one of the first EJK Book Award Honors. With Daniel Finds a Poem, she became an author as well. Both words and pictures suit her talent: A child’s curiosity is an apt theme for this former kindergarten teacher, and the imagery, rich in color, texture and ingenuity, reflects Micha’s career as an artist and designer. Micha lives in rural Massachusetts.
2017 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award Committee
- KT Horning, Chair
- Rita Auerbach
- Jason Chin
- Angela Johnson
- Dr. Claudette S. McLinn
- Sean Qualls
- Caroline Ward
- Junko Yokota
- Paul O. Zelinsky
Ex-Officio Members
Deborah Pope, Executive Director, Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
Ellen Ruffin, Curator, de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection
Dr. John Eye, Dean, University Libraries