2024 CLA Breakfast Preview: Meet the Ransomes

by Jeanne Gilliam Fain & Susan Polos (2024 CLA Breakfast Co-Chairs)

Every year, the Children's Literature Assembly hosts the CLA Breakfast during the annual NCTE Conference. This year, we are delighted to feature as keynote speakers award-winning author Lesa-Cline Ransome and award-winning illustrator James Ransome.

Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome are significant and prolific figures in the world of children’s literature. Lesa has written over 25 picture books, five middle grade or YA novels, biographies, a collective biography, and she has contributed to several anthologies. James Ransome has illustrated over 70 picture books, often, but not always, partnering with Lesa. James Ransome was named the winner of the 2023 Children’s Literature Legacy Award; he has previously won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and the Illustrator Honors Award. Lesa has won Coretta Scott King Author Honor Awards, the Scott O’Dell Award, and other honors.

James and Lesa’s most recent collaborations include Fighting with Love: the Legacy of John Lewis (2024) and They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom (2024). Fighting with Love is a nonfiction picture book chronicling the life of civil rights hero John Lewis, from his childhood through his work in government and in resistance. They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom captures an important historical truth: the risks taken by enslaved people to teach each other to read and write. Lesa Cline-Ransome’s most recent chapter book is One Big Open Sky (2024), a verse novel told in three intergenerational perspectives telling of the Black homesteader movement, another aspect of history seldom shared in textbooks.

Lesa Cline-Ransome

James Ransome

Lesa and James value the stories that we need to know from history. They often ask each other the questions, “Have you heard this?” or “Did you know this?” and these questions often lead them to write about stories and “the humanity of people whose stories have never been told.” You won’t want to miss Lesa and James as they provide us with incredible insights into their work during the 2024 CLA Breakfast on Sunday, November 24th, starting at 7 am ET  (Room 210A, Convention Center, Level 2).

Here’s an excerpt from our interview with them:

Lesa: Our newest, the book that came out this month, is John Lewis: Fighting With Love. I said to James after he finished the illustrations, and I never say this because I have to live with James, so what I don’t want is for James to get a head so big he can’t come into the house, “This book is outstanding.” He’ll tell you, I very rarely say that. I say, “James, it’s beautiful. Good job,” but rarely, “outstanding.”   Every time I look at this book I find something else to love. It is a balance of writing and illustration and the way they seamlessly came together. It is the story of Congressman John Lewis, who James and I have both loved and admired. James pitched this to our editor several years ago. Was I involved? Nope.  Because sometimes James just pitches a project to an editor and the next thing that I know I am writing with him.
 
James: Well, I always discuss them with you. Well except the time with Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams. I’d been asking, begging Lesa, I think after she wrote Satchel Paige, that was the book I asked her to write…

Lesa and James are a powerful author and illustrator team. Their banter is real and genuine. Separately and together, they embrace the power of writing, illustrating, and sharing critical stories with their readers. We came away feeling excited for the CLA Breakfast where we know Lesa and James will share their extraordinary expertise along with their unique and important perspectives. They understand the responsibility of stories that add to our understanding of history.

Special Thanks To

Simon & Schuster for sponsoring Lesa and James' participation and donating books for the breakfast.

Candlewick and Holiday House for donating books for the breakfast.

Jeanne Gilliam Fain is a professor in the College of Education at Lipscomb University and she is the Director of MLL/ELL program. Her scholarship agenda includes a focus on Literacy, Literature, and Language Study in K-12 classrooms. She served as chair of the Notable in Children’s Language Arts Award and she currently serves as current chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society. She is 2024 co-chair of the CLA Breakfast Committee.

Susan Polos is the middle school librarian at Greenwich Country Day School (Greenwich, CT). She has served on the Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Pura Belpré book award juries. Currently, she serves Assistant Chair of the Outstanding International Books Committee for the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), is a co-chair of the Breakfast Committee for the Children's Literature Assembly, and is a member of the Archives and History Committee of the Coretta Scott King Book Award Community. 

CLA at NCTE 2024

For further details about the breakfast and other CLA sessions and activities during NCTE 2024, visit our CLA@NCTE page.