Pocono à la Mode 2024: Moving Through the Middle

Vashti Harrison is an acclaimed writer, illustrator, and filmmaker. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends, an award-winning children’s collection of biographies about trailblazing women and exceptional men in black history. Her picture book, BIG, became an instant New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist with its emotional and universal messages about the power of words and one child’s journey to self-love. Harrison’s artistic talent shines through in the numerous and notable collaborations she has illustrated, including Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star. Harrison’s dedication and talent have been recognized with prestigious accolades, including a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe, as well as two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work for Children. She is frequently profiled by national media outlets and is a popular speaker at schools, libraries, conferences, museums, and book festivals as well as educator and parent organizations.

Brian LaRossa (he/him) is an executive art director in the hardcover picture book group at Scholastic Inc., the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. After hours he teaches a course on critical writing for The City College of New York and is a mentor in the We Need Diverse Books mentorship program. He has written many essays for publications such as Design Observer and AIGA’s Eye on Design. He also manages his own display font foundry, which developed a typeface for Google Fonts. In his spare time he writes fiction. His work has won awards from the Type Directors Club, Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Print Magazine, and his conceptual poetry is included in the permanent collection of the MoMA Library. He lives and works in New York City.