Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow. She now resides in Rhode Island and is the mother of three galaxies who look like daughters. Visit her online at EkereTallie.com.Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Journey trilogy and other award-winning books for children young and old, including The Last Zookeeper, The Tree and the River, and A Stone for Sascha. When he’s not home with his wife and two daughters, he can be found creating something new in his backyard studio in western Massachusetts. Visit him online at StoryBreathing.com.

“Tallie’s poetic text celebrates the textured details of an urban neighborhood and the pleasure of sharing those details with someone else . . . The palette, heavy on mauves and soft shades of blue, conveys the warmth and safety of the small, shared adventure.”

Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow. She now resides in Rhode Island and is the mother of three galaxies who look like daughters. Visit her online at EkereTallie.com.Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Journey trilogy and other award-winning books for children young and old, including The Last Zookeeper, The Tree and the River, and A Stone for Sascha. When he’s not home with his wife and two daughters, he can be found creating something new in his backyard studio in western Massachusetts. Visit him online at StoryBreathing.com.

“Tallie’s poetic text celebrates the textured details of an urban neighborhood and the pleasure of sharing those details with someone else . . . The palette, heavy on mauves and soft shades of blue, conveys the warmth and safety of the small, shared adventure.”

Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow. She now resides in Rhode Island and is the mother of three galaxies who look like daughters. Visit her online at EkereTallie.com.Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Journey trilogy and other award-winning books for children young and old, including The Last Zookeeper, The Tree and the River, and A Stone for Sascha. When he’s not home with his wife and two daughters, he can be found creating something new in his backyard studio in western Massachusetts. Visit him online at StoryBreathing.com.

“Tallie’s poetic text celebrates the textured details of an urban neighborhood and the pleasure of sharing those details with someone else . . . The palette, heavy on mauves and soft shades of blue, conveys the warmth and safety of the small, shared adventure.”