Our Gracie Aunt

Jacqueline Woodson gives us a tender and moving story about two siblings who don’t know what to expect when they’re sent to live with an unfamiliar aunt, but soon discover that there’s plenty of love to go around when they need it most, with stunning original art by Monica Mikai.

Sometimes, even when a mama loves you, she can’t always take care of you . . .
That’s what happens with Johnson and Beebee’s mama--and that’s why they are being taken to their aunt Gracie’s house.

Who is this Gracie aunt? That’s what Johnson wants to know. He can’t remember her, and Beebee doesn’t seem to trust her, at least not at first. But slowly, as the three of them spend time together--cooking, watching movies, snuggling on the couch, and even crying when they need to--they form a bond. And when Johnson sees Mama again, he knows that no matter where he lives, he’ll always be surrounded by love.

Jacqueline Woodson (JacquelineWoodson.com) received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2022 Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence, and was the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and an NAACP Image Award. Her dozens of books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and the picture book Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Monica Mikai (MonicaMikai.com) wrote and illustrated What the Garden Tells Me, Wash Day with Mama, and My Quiet Place. She has illustrated numerous picture books, including Build a House (by Rhiannon Giddens), My Name Is a Story (by Ashanti), You Are Getting Sleepy (by Lori Alexander), The Proudest Color (by Sheila Modir and Jeffrey Kashou), and Thank a Farmer (by Maria Gianferrari). She has a BA in art and elementary education from Rider University and an MFA in painting from the New York Studio School. Monica lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with her husband and two sons.