Radiant Child (2017)

Radiant Child tells the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat's connection to art and his journey towards becoming an artist. It starts in Brooklyn where Basquiat spent his childhood. Even as a child, Basquiat saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. As a teen, Basquiat starts as a street artist before moving into galleries. Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen.

Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean… and definitely not inside the lines… to be beautiful.

Winner of the 2017 Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award