Mac Barnett
“The picture book is often considered simple or cute, like literature with training wheels, but it’s a vibrant, sophisticated art form. Picture books demand clarity, not simplicity. The history of children’s books —from Margaret Wise Brown to Maurice Sendak— is full of radical, experimental texts.”
—Mac Barnett
Beloved children’s author Mac Barnett is the ninth U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress. He’s the author of such favorites as the New York Times bestseller The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse; the Caldecott Honor Book and E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winner Sam and Dave Dig a Hole; and the Caldecott Honor Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winner Extra Yarn. He is the co-creator, with Jon Klassen, of Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. For more than two decades, Barnett has delighted young readers with his stories, but he is also one of children’s literature’s most compelling advocates, speaking to audiences of adults about the importance of art and storytelling. In his lectures across the country, Barnett champions the power of picture books and the brilliance of the kids who read them, unpacking the reasons why children’s literature is often underestimated or overlooked.
His latest book for adults, Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, is a rallying cry for art and imagination, and a celebration of the power of storytelling in all our lives. Barnett is a former student of David Foster Wallace, whose experimental fiction helped him to think about storytelling in new ways, and who taught him that writing well means figuring out what you actually care about, and then figuring out how to make somebody else care too.
“‘Kids’ books merit grown–up conversation,’ children’s author Barnett asserts in his by turns grave and playful treatise…. It’s a poignant refresher for ‘dead dull finished grown–ups’ on childhood’s role as an ‘in–between place full of uncertainty.’”
—Publishers Weekly
He and frequent collaborator Jon Klassen are the co-creators of Looking at Picture Books, a spirited Substack newsletter where they discuss and dissect classic picture books in both critical and witty fashion. Barnett is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and his work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. He lives in Oakland, California.
“The picture book is often considered simple or cute, like literature with training wheels, but it’s a vibrant, sophisticated art form. Picture books demand clarity, not simplicity. The history of children’s books —from Margaret Wise Brown to Maurice Sendak— is full of radical, experimental texts.”
—Mac Barnett
Beloved children’s author Mac Barnett is the ninth U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress. He’s the author of such favorites as the New York Times bestseller The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse; the Caldecott Honor Book and E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winner Sam and Dave Dig a Hole; and the Caldecott Honor Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award-winner Extra Yarn. He is the co-creator, with Jon Klassen, of Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. For more than two decades, Barnett has delighted young readers with his stories, but he is also one of children’s literature’s most compelling advocates, speaking to audiences of adults about the importance of art and storytelling. In his lectures across the country, Barnett champions the power of picture books and the brilliance of the kids who read them, unpacking the reasons why children’s literature is often underestimated or overlooked.
His latest book for adults, Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, is a rallying cry for art and imagination, and a celebration of the power of storytelling in all our lives. Barnett is a former student of David Foster Wallace, whose experimental fiction helped him to think about storytelling in new ways, and who taught him that writing well means figuring out what you actually care about, and then figuring out how to make somebody else care too.
“‘Kids’ books merit grown–up conversation,’ children’s author Barnett asserts in his by turns grave and playful treatise…. It’s a poignant refresher for ‘dead dull finished grown–ups’ on childhood’s role as an ‘in–between place full of uncertainty.’”
—Publishers Weekly
He and frequent collaborator Jon Klassen are the co-creators of Looking at Picture Books, a spirited Substack newsletter where they discuss and dissect classic picture books in both critical and witty fashion. Barnett is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and his work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. He lives in Oakland, California.
- The Real Story with Kids and Reading
- Behold! The Picture Book
- Learning to Read from Children
- How to Write for Kids (and Why)
- Looking at Picture Books Live!
- How to Read a Picture Book Out Loud (And Why)
Literature for Adults
- Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children (Little, Brown, 2026)
Picture Books
- The Future Book (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2026)
- Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy (Tundra Books, 2026)
- Rumpelstiltskin, illus. Carson Ellis (Orchard Books, 2026)
- Santa’s First Christmas, illus. Sydney Smith (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2024)
- How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, illus. Jon Klassen (Candlewick, 2023)
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff, illus. Jon Klassen (Orchard Books, 2022)
- The Great Zapfino, illus. Marla Frazee (Beach Lane Books, 2022)
- John’s Turn, illus. Kate Berube (Candlewick, 2022)
- What is Love?, illus. Carson Ellis (Chronicle, 2021)
- The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown, illus. Sarah Jacoby (HarperCollins, 2019)
- Just Because, illus. Isabelle Arsenault (Candlewick, 2019)
- The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, illus. Jon Klassen (Candlewick, 2017)
- Leo: A Ghost Story, illus. Christian Robinson (Chronicle, 2015)
- Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, illus. Jon Klassen (Candlewick, 2014)
- Extra Yarn, illus. Adam Rex (HarperCollins, 2012)
- Billy Blue and his Blue Whale Problem, illus. Adam Rex (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009)
Picture Book/Early Reader Series
- The Shapes Trilogy, illus. Jon Klassen (Candlewick)
- Now I See Series, illus. Jon Klassen (Tundra Books)
- A Jack Book Series, illus. Greg Pizzoli (Penguin Young Readers)
- Oh No! Not Again! Series, illus. Dan Santat (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- Mac B. Kid Spy Series, illus. Jory John (Scholastic)
Middle Grade Series
- The First Cat in Space Series, illus. Shawn Harris (HarperCollins)
- The Terrible Two Series, illus. Kevin Cornell (Abrams Books)
- The Brixton Brothers Series, illus. Adam Rex (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
- 2025-26 National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature for the Library of Congress
- 2020 Germany’s Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (Youth Literature Award), Shapes Trilogy
- 2019 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Award, Just Because
- 2019 Netherland’s Silver Griffel (Youth Literature Award), The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse
- 2018 China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse
- 2018 E.B. White Read Aloud Award, The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse
- 2017 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Award, The Wolf, The Duck, and The Mouse
- 2017 Italy’s Premio Orbil (Youth Literature Award), Extra Yarn
- 2015 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Award, Leo: A Ghost Story
- 2015 Caldecott Honor, Sam & Dave Dig a Hole
- 2015 E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Sam & Dave Dig a Hole
- 2013 Caldecott Honor, Extra Yarn
- 2013 E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Extra Yarn
- 2012 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Extra Yarn
“Mac Barnett is an American treasure and his thesis here is right: the great books for young readers are not educational pamphlets, they’re great (and weird and funny and new) stories. Having witnessed kids writing their own stories for the last 25 years, I’ve seen that what they’re interested in is not trite lessons and tidy morals — and let’s say it, propaganda — but narratives involving talking snack foods and interplanetary royalty. Kids are very strange and original beings, and the books we send their way should be strange and original, too. Mac has shown this brilliantly in his own work, and here lays out an urgent path for the rest of us.“
“What an experience! Mac built a rapport with the students immediately and captivated them during their read alouds. The joy on the kids’ faces was priceless. They reacted with laughter, cries of surprise/and digust (when appropriate) and were eager to ask questions during the Q&A period. When they announced each of them would receive a copy of Triangle, the auditorium erupted. During their dismissal, several kids stopped to thank Mac for coming. The principal and teachers were VERY APPRECIATIVE of the opportunity to have Mac at the school.”
“He is a believer that picture books can have Swiftian absurdity and untidy endings, and that ‘life is absurd, and kids know that.’”
- LISTEN: NPR’s All Things Considered, Are picture books undervalued? This new ambassador of children’s literature thinks so
- READ: Children’s author Mac Barnett wants the U.S. to appreciate picture book, San Francisco Chronicle
- READ: Barnett Named 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
- READ: A Literary Genius Who Championed Nonsense, New York Times
- READ: David Foster Wallace, My Teacher, The Guardian
BOOKS
Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children
A loving sermon on the rewards of children’s books.
Kirkus Reviews
Rumpelstiltskin
Triangle (The Shapes Trilogy Book 1)
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole
Extra Yarn
The First Cat in Space and the Baby Pirate’s Revenge: A Graphic Novel – A Swashbuckling Pirate Adventure about Mutiny and Betrayal for Kids
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Videos
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