Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen are friends who make children’s books. They were called “the picture book kings” by the New York Post, a newspaper that, to their knowledge, has never been wrong about anything.

Every book they’ve made together is a New York Times bestseller, except for one, Triangle, which is the one Jon likes best. Oh well!

Collectively, they have won two Caldecott Honors, a Caldecott Medal, a Kate Greenaway Medal, New York Times Best Illustrated awards, Society of Illustrators medals, E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, Canadian Governor General's medals, and several other international prizes. Jon has received the Order of Canada. Mac is not Canadian.

They are the creators of Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books.

They have a substack together, Looking at Picture Books about how picture books work. The first time they met, at a party, they spent hours discussing picture books, and have been talking about them ever since.

Mac lives in Oakland, California. Jon Klassen lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.