Javaka Steptoe received a bachelor of fine arts degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is an artist, designer, and illustrator. His debut work, In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers, received the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. His other books include Do You Know What I'll Do? written by Charlotte Zolotow, A Pocketful of Poems written by Nikki Grimes, Rain Play written by Cynthia Cotton, Amiri and Odette: A Love Story written by Walter Dean Myers, and Hot Day on Abbott Avenue written by Karen English, which received the 2005 Jane Addams Children's Book Award. Steptoe is the author and illustrator of The Jones Family Express and Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, which received the 2017 Randolph Caldecott Medal.
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