Jerry Pinkney, whose birthday is on December 22nd, has four Caldecott Honor medals for The Ugly Duckling, John Henry (Dial), The Talking Eggs (Dial), and Mirandy and Brother Wind (Knopf). He has won the Coretta Scott King Award four times, the 1998 nomination for IBBY's Hans Christian Andersen Illustration Medal, and the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators in New York City. A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, his first job was creating art for greeting cards. He has designed eleven postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service Black Heritage series.

An author and illustrator, Pinkney enjoys working with children's books because of the marriage between typography and artwork. He is married to author Gloria Jean Pinkney and they are the parents of Brian and Myles, who continue the storytelling and illustrating tradition of this amazing family. Mr. Pinkney writes, "Good music was also a continuous part of our environment. As a result, I fell in love with jazz and blues. Over the years, music has become an important influence in my life, and in my art, I try to convey that emotional, flowing quality of jazz."