Yuyi Morales
Bestselling Children's Illustrator & Author


Born in Mexico and raised among giant grandmothers, mossy house walls, and rampaging feral gardens, Yuyi Morales fostered a strong bond with the magical stories that ran in her family. After migrating to the US in 1994, she struggled with English and loneliness in a culture foreign to her but found solace in public libraries, where she read children’s books with her infant son and discovered a renewed interest in stories and art.

Asked about her work, Yuyi says, “I strive to capture the incredible beauty of the everyday forms using textures and colors as another way to reveal the heart of the story. I also pursue glow and luminosity with resolve. If I could ask for a talent, it would be to become a color genius.”

Yuyi is now the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the New York Times bestseller Dreamers, her most recent book, Bright Star, and she is a seven-time winner of the Pura Belpre Medal for an outstanding work of literature for children that best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. Other honors include the Americas Award, the Golden Kite Medal, the Christopher Award, the Jane Adams Award, and the Tomas Rivera Award. In 2015 she received the Caldecott Honor for her book Viva Frida.

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Hardcover
Square Fish

Niño Wrestles the World is in English with Spanish vocabulary, and is a fun, colorful story about a boy wrestling with imaginary monsters (including an Olmec Head and La Llorona) and adversaries like his younger sisters. This is a joyful picture book about imagination, play, and siblings.

Hardcover
Roaring Brook Press

Frida Kahlo, one of the world's most famous and unusual artists is revered around the world. Her life was filled with laughter, love, and tragedy, all of which influenced what she painted on her canvases.

Hardcover
Just in CaseA Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book
Roaring Brook Press

Yuyi Morales takes us on a new journey with Señor Calvera, the skeleton from Day of the Dead celebrations. Señor Calvera is worried. He can't figure out what to give Grandma Beetle for her birthday. Misunderstanding the advice of Zelmiro the Ghost, Señor Calvera decides not to get her one gift, but instead one gift for every letter of the alphabet, just in case.

An Evening with Yuyi Morales Yuyi discusses her career in writing and illustrating children's books, her heritage, and the importance of fostering bilingual children.





Read starred Publishers Weekly reviews for Yuyi’s two most recent books, Bright Star, and, Dreamers, as well as an interview that Yuyi did with the School Library Journal about Bright Star. A collection of Yuyi’s illustrated works are currently on tour through the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) and you can read about her recent exhibition, Soñadora, which was on display at the Orlando Museum of Art.

 

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“Her talks were very well received. I believe she made a lasting impact on our community.”
— Steve Daniel Przymus, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Bilingual Education & Educational Linguistics, Texas Christian University