You Are Life

Every child is full to bursting with amazing things! This joyful poem celebrates the wonderful and complex identity of children of immigrants and refugees, embracing all that they are—a dancer, a shining light, a K-pop song—and promising what they will never be: invisible. Award-winning picture book author and poet Bao Phi and illustrator Hannah Li remind young readers through lyrical text and fantastical illustrations that who they are and what they love will always be enough.

Bao Phi is an award-winning poet and children’s book author. His stunning debut picture book with illustrator Thi Bui, A Different Pond, won a Caldecott Honor, a Charlotte Zolotow Award, an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, an Ezra Jack Keats Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, and numerous other awards and accolades. You Are Life is his fourth picture book. Bao is a single co-parent father, an arts administrator, and a book nerd.

Hannah Li is a New York-based illustrator from China. She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design and provides illustrations for newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar. She illustrates for publishers such as Penguin Random House and Macmillan. Hannah’s work has been recognized by the Red Dot Award, Communication Arts, American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, 3x3, and many more.

Interest level: K-3

Reading level: K-3