Banned in Florida elementary schools and celebrated on the television show Reading Rainbow, James Ransome’s children’s books are as newsworthy for adults as they are enthralling to children. Ransome, a regular contributing illustrator to Alta Journal, joins Alta Live to discuss his work, namely what it’s like to have it banned in certain school districts while finding it simultaneously honored by the American Library Association, which gave Ransome its 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. We’ll look at examples of Ransome’s illustrations, talk about his extraordinary career, and examine what might come next for this groundbreaking artist.
About the guest:
The Children’s Book Council named James E. Ransome as one of 75 authors and illustrators everyone should know. Currently a member of the Society of Illustrators, Ransome has received both the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration and the IBBY Honor Award for his book The Creation. He has also received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award for Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, which was selected as an ALA Notable Children’s Book and is currently being shown as a feature on Reading Rainbow. How Many Stars in the Sky? and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt were also Reading Rainbow selections. PBS’s Storytime featured his book The Old Dog.
Ransome has exhibited works in group and solo shows throughout the country and received an award from the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance for his book The Wagon. In 1999, Let My People Go received the NAACP Image Award for Illustration, and Satchel Paige was reviewed in Bank Street College of Education’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year. In 2001, Ransome received the Rip Van Winkle Award from the School Library Media Specialists of Southeastern New York for the body of his work. How Animals Saved the People received the SEBA (Southeastern Book Association) Best Book of the Year Award in 2002, and the Vermont Center for the Book chose Visiting Day as one of the top ten diversity books of 2002. In 2004, Ransome was recognized by the local art association when he received the Dutchess County Executive’s Arts Award for an Individual Artist.
He has completed several commissioned murals for the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Hemphill Branch Library in Greensboro, North Carolina. He created a historical painting commissioned by a jury for the Paterson, New Jersey, Library and a poster for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Brown v. Board of Education. His traveling exhibit, Visual Stories, has been touring the United States since 2003. His work is part of both private and public children’s book art collections.•
