Melissa Iwai

Melissa Iwai is an author and illustrator of many children’s books. Dumplings for Lili (Norton Books for Young Readers, 2021), which she both wrote and illustrated, was a Crystal Kite Award winner, received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist and was also named a Best Book of the Year by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Public Library. Gigi and Ojiji, her debut I Can Read Series with Harper Collins received a Geisel Honor Award and was on the Best Books Lists of Kirkus, the Chicago Public Library, the Evanston Library, and the NY Public Libraries. The second book in the series, Gigi and Ojiji: What’s In A Name? (Harper Young Readers, 2023) is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard book.