ABOUT NINA

Nina Crews is an award winning children’s book author and illustrator. Her first book, One Hot Summer Day, was published in 1995. Daughter of Donald Crews (Freight Train; Truck; Ten Black Dots; Shortcut ) and Ann Jonas (Crews) (Round Trip; The Quilt; Splash; Color Dance), she has followed in the “family business” creating picture books for young readers. Known for her distinctive photocollage style, Nina has recently put her camera aside to create digitally rendered and collaged illustrations in her latest projects. 

Nina’s books include I'm Not Small, Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm's Fight for Change, A Girl Like Me, The Neighborhood Mother Goose, Seeing Into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright, and Below.  Her work has been recognized by the ALA Notable Committee, the Black Caucus of the ALA, The Horn Book, Junior Library Guild, NCTE, CCBC, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Bank Street College of Education and many others.  

I’m Not Small, the story of a preschooler’s first solo adventure in his backyard. It is a Horn Book Fanfare selection and been included on the Chicago Public Library Best Picture Books of 2022 List. Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm's Fight for Change is a Kirkus Best Book of 2022  and one of the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature’s Best Books of 2022. Her newest book is Extraordinary Magic: The Storytelling Life of Virginia Hamilton.

Nina is the recipient of the 2023 New York State Library Association's Empire State Award.  She is a member of SCBWI and The Author’s Guild. She is a graduate of Yale University, where she received a BA in art and participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program studio program for artists. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. 

Nina is represented by Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency.

• Publisher's Weekly Q&A with Book Creators on Honoring Influential Black Figures
• SLJ-On Portraying Virginia Hamilton in EXTRAORDINARY MAGIC
• Mackin Community Newsletter: Nina Crews: Celebrating a Storytelling Life
• Booklist: The Shelf Care Interview: Tameka Fryer Brown and Nina Crews
• A chat with Julie Danielson about new books for 2022 at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
• Nina Crews ‘s books or how to add magic to everyday life
• A Girl Like Me: Creating Photocollage Illustrations
• http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/08/13/cover-reveal-and-interviews-talking-with-nina-crews-and-angela-johnson/
• An interview with Julie Danielson at kirkusreviews.com/features/seeing-tomorrow-nina-crews/
• A conversation with Selina Alko and Sean Qualls on the Lerner blog
• An interview on James Preller’s blog 5 Questions with Nina Crews
• An interview on the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog
• kirkusreviews.com – Traditional Songs for Today’s Kids
• http://nccil.org/experience/artists/crewsfam/ncrews.htm
• http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2008/02/12/nina-crews/
• http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/16150/Nina_Crews/index.aspx