Canadian illustrator Sarah Gonzales awarded the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award for Illustrators

Last week, the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation (EJK Foundation), in partnership with the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), announced the winners of the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award (EJK Award), as well as four honour books and four finalists. The annual EJK Award celebrates exceptional early career authors and illustrators for portraying the multicultural nature of our world in the spirit of Ezra Jack Keats.

Canadian illustrator Sarah Gonzales was named the winner of the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award for Illustrators for her picture book The Only Way to Make Bread by fellow Canadian Cristina Quintero (Tundra Books).

“The EJK Award illuminates human uniqueness and togetherness, the traits of  Keats’ work that inspire me," says Gonzales. "In my resilient immigrant family, we were strong, as individuals and as a group. With Cristina’s beautiful words, I hoped to represent the strength of sharing as a community, and the happiness of baking bread.”

When You Can Swim by Nova Scotia author Jack Wong (Orchard Books/Scholastic) was a finalist for the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award for Writers. Illustrated by Cree/Métis illustrator Julie Flett, Just Like Grandma by Kim Rogers (Heartdrum) was named an honour book for the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award for Writers.

For more information about the 2024 EJK Award, visit ejkf.org.