Sophie Blackall:
Australian born Blackall started her career with various jobs such as painting robotic characters for theme parks, and authoring a household hints column. She also exhibited her paintings at galleries in Sydney and Melbourne. While in Australia, she married and had two children. In 2000 she won a lottery for an immigration visa, and moved her family to Brooklyn, New York.
She did various editorial work, and did several animated commercials for the UK market. She began illustrating children's books in collaboration with writers. Her first illustrated book, Ruby’s Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, won the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award in 2003.
Her first book for adults, Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found (2011), was based on a blog for anonymous messages posted online by lovelorn strangers. She won the 2016 Caldecott Medal for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear and the 2019 Caldecott Medal for Hello Lighthouse.
As of 2016, she has illustrated more than 30 books for children, including the Ivy and Bean series. Blackall has also collaborated with authors such as Jacqueline Woodson, John Bemelmans Marciano, Jane Yolen, and Meg Rosoff. Her work also includes animated television commercials and editorial illustrations for newspapers and magazines.
She is also currently working on a converting a farmhouse in upstate New York into a retreat for writers and artists called Milkwood.