Sponsored by the Decatur Education Foundation

In their multi-award winning Crown: Ode to the Fresh Cut, the duo of Derrick Barnes and Gordon James offered the kid’s eye view of a day in the life of a barbershop. Barnes and James team up again with I Am Every Good Thing, a timely, important, and uplifting picture book that celebrates Black boys everywhere!

Derrick Barnes wrote the New York Times bestseller The King of Kindergarten, as well as the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (illustrated by Gordon James), which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the 2018 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. He also wrote the bestselling chapter book series Ruby and the Booker Boys. He owns the copy-writing company Say Word Creative Communications and created the popular blog Raising the Mighty, where he "chronicles the experience of bringing up four beautiful Black boys in America." He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and their four sons.

Gordon C. James, a graduate of the School of Visual Arts, is a nationally recognized, award-winning fine artist specializing in figurative drawing.  He illustrated the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (by Derrick Barnes), which received a Caldecott Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, an Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor, the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers, and a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He also illustrated Let 'Er Buck!: George Fletcher, the People's Champion (by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson). He has worked for Hallmark as an illustrator and artist and has taught at the University of North Carolina. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and two children.

An actor, percussionist, and storyteller, Jerry G. White fuses all of those elements into his passion and love for performing and being an arts educator.

He is excited to announce that his debut bilingual children’s book titled, Anansi and the Colorful Kente Cloth Illustrated by Courtney Strickland will be released by 1010 Publishing in 2021.

Jerry G. is a Teaching Artist with the Teaching Museum of the Fulton County School System. He is listed on the Georgia Council for the Arts Teaching Artists Registry. You can find him performing throughout the Atlanta metro area with his performance entity A Performance Method. His beloved phrase and mantra is “Bring the words to life!”

Crown: Ode to the Fresh Cut and I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon James available through local, indie bookseller

Kidnote: I Am Every Good Thing with Derrick Barnes and Gordon James Sponsored by the Decatur Education Foundation