Andrea Wang

Watercress began in a memory Andrea Wang held onto for decades: an Ohio roadside, the family car pulled over, and being made to climb into a muddy ditch to gather wild greens while she burned with embarrassment. The picture book she built from it, illustrated by Jason Chin and published by Neal Porter Books in 2021, turns that shame around when the girl's mother explains what hunger in China had meant to her family. Recognition in 2022 was unusually broad. Chin won the Caldecott Medal for the artwork, Wang took a Newbery Honor, which a picture book seldom receives, and the title also won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Wang came to children's books late, after years in environmental consulting; she holds a master's degree in environmental science as well as an MFA in writing for young people. Her other titles include The Nian Monster, Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando, and Luli and the Language of Tea, illustrated by Hyewon Yum.