You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!

PRAISE FOR YOU GOTTA MEET MR. PIERCE!THREE STARRED REVIEWSBooklist Best Book of the Year 2023Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature Best Book of 2023 Black Caucus American Library Association Best of the Best 2023Cooperative Children’s Book Center 2024 Choice2024 Young Readers Selection for the Great Reads from Great Places Initiative of the Library of Congress Center (Ohio)2025 Choose to Read Ohio booklist2026 Garden State Children’s Book Award Nominee (New Jersey)* “Thoughtful and enlightening.” –Booklist, starred review. * “This thoughtfully constructed book tells an appealing story, introduces a prolificAfrican American artist, and leaves readers to ponder the role of formal training in art.” –School Library Connection, starred review.* “The conversational framing imbues this picture book biography with warmth and intimacy … There’s plenty of fodder here for themed storytimes on Black history and art.” –The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review.“Likely to spark some real love in conversations surrounding the role of folk art, community outposts such as neighborhood barbershops, and more.” –School Library Journal“An intimate encounter with an artist who should be better known.” –Kirkus Reviews“The brief narrative works on several layers.” –Horn Book“Action words (“DRAPE /SNAP,” “SAND/DUST”) evoke movement and expertise throughout, while Mack-Watkins’s use of woodcut textures brings the subject’s medium to the fore.” –Publishers Weekly

Carmella Van Vleet is a former kindergarten teacher who now writes full-time. She’s the author of over a dozen books, including the award-winning middle-grade novel Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big, Fat Quitter and the picture book To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space (co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan). Carmella lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Chiquita Mullins Lee is an Arts Learning coordinator at the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), where she manages Ohio’s Poetry Out Loud and Arts Partnership programs. She is a former teaching artist in creative writing on the OAC teaching artist roster, hosted the Emmy-award winning program Traditions- Ohio Heritage Fellows, and has served on the Arts Education review panel for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jennifer Mack-Watkins is a printmaker whose work investigates power through the complexities of themes like womanhood, beauty, body image, and gender roles. Her solo exhibition “Children of the Sun” at Brattleboro Museum has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and Essence Magazine.

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