Vashti Harrison is the New York Times bestselling creator of Big, which was awarded the 2024 Caldecott Medal, a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor, in addition to being a National Book Award finalist. Vashti is also the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends, and the illustrator of Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe (for which she received a Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor), Matthew A. Cherry’s Hair Love, Andrea Beaty's I Love You Like Yellow, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. A two-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children, Vashti lives in Brooklyn, New York, and invites you to visit her online @vashtiharrison or at vashtiharrison.com.

Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women In Black History, is an artist, author and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film/video from California Institute of the Arts, where she snuck into animation and illustration classes to learn from Disney and DreamWorks legends. There she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Now she uses her love of both film and illustration to craft beautiful stories for children.