Gracey Zhang

See me seeing you on the @nytbooks in fantastic company, congratulations to all on the list! Yay to us @stephencbarr @taylornorm @northerntoast 🥳

Official release date of Lala today! Lala holds so many things i love—the city in the summer, community, nurturing relationships, but never thought lala would also let me meet and work with so many people who make everything they touch golden @hanmannstagram @kaitfeldmann @sunnysydd @dbuu @helloceliaaa @scholasticinc 💛💛 cannot explain how moved i’ve been by how much support and KIND WORDS they’ve given me, here is a carousel of some real life lala’s world 🌱 🌱

1️⃣0️⃣ day countdown until WHEN RUBIN PLAYS is out on July 18 🎻 been sitting on this story for a minute and can’t wait for these sounds to be read aloud ! Pre-order is available thru @amazon @barnesandnoble and your local bookstore 📚 #whenrubinplays #picturebooks #illustratorsoninstagram #picturebookauthor #picturebookillustration

Some tokyo + osaka characters seen on the street and metro 🚋 #illustrator #illustrationartists #illustratorsoninstagram #travelsketch #travelsketchbook #inksketches #pensketches #illustrationsketch #sketchbook

ANYTHING 🌈🎂 written by @rebstead and illustrated by me will be released in a month and available for pre-order now ! This was such a fun one to illustrate and probably the most miles on a book I’ve worked on. I started illustrating it in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, didn’t feel like it was working so scrapped it and re-started when I was in Arusha, Kenya. Included a few photos of when I was trying to photograph it outside the courtyard at @davidwakawaka guesthouse, then completed the interiors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where it was then packaged and shipped off. The jacket cover was later completed in Duhok, Kurdistan and shipped off from Van, Turkey. All the things that go into book making 💌 Photos of the finished physical book were taken by @tulesy in nyc ❣️ #illustration #illustratorsofinstagram #illustratorsoninstragram #picturebookillustration #picturebooks #chroniclebooks #bookillustrationart #bookillustrations #bookillustrator #childrensbookillustration #childrensbookart #childrensbooks

End of december into january in pakistan, lahore and islamabad. The last clip has cracked me up everytime i see it 🫰 #graceydiary

Jalalabad was meant to be a one might stop before crossing the torkham border into Pakistan but the sun brought warmth and so many colours and sounds that rattled my senses. Was pulled into so many homes and offered too many cups of chai. At my hotel, i felt something fall and land next to my head at night, when i shone my flashlight, i saw a pink gecko waddle away which i think was good luck and a final good-bye before leaving Afghanistan. #graceydiary

• Shahr-e-gholggola, a city massacred by genghis khan after the death of his favourite grandson in battle here • the buddhas of bamiyan, built in the 6th century ce and destroyed by the taliban in 2001 • band-e amir park, the first national park in afghanistan, the taliban banned women from entering it in 2023 but the rule seems to change depending on who’s working there. When i went, i was told the law was lifted but all these events in one place made me think of ted chiang’s ‘the egg’, i’m sure there’s a lesson in here somewhere but most of my time in bamiyan was just enjoying the views 🥚 #graceydiary

Quickly—entering Afghanistan from Uzbekistan in december. I felt myself rushing through each city in an attempt to escape the cold as winter started to creep in ❄️ mazar e sharif and kabul, funnily enough the temperature started to warm as i was leaving kabul. #graceydiary

Nice to paint again, thank you for having me @3331_commanda ❣️ ‘the skybridge at nighttime’, oil on canvas #illustration #illustrationartists #oilpainting #paintingdrawing #drawing #oiloncanvas #illustratorsoninstagram

A month ago i got the call that NOODLES ON A BICYCLE received the 2025 Caldecott Honor Award 🌟a lot of hearts, hands, and late nights went into this book, and i couldn’t be more more grateful that NOODLES is an honoree with a big shiny sticker. By britannica definition: “Caldecott Medal, annual prize awarded “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.” It was established in 1938 by Frederic G. Melcher, chairman of the board of the R.R. Bowker Publishing Company, and named for the 19th-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott.” NOODLES was created and guided with so many talents, @kyomaclear beautifully written story ✍️, @msanniekelley editor extraordinaire 📑, and tireless art director @rachaelcole 🖌️ and a whole lot of email chains ⛓️ First slide is by @bottomshelfbks who has been doing his traditional extreme Caldecott placements in the winning books for a decade now ! A very kind clip the ALA members took for me since I slept through the first few phone calls attempting to reach me, and all the noodles i’ve been having since from thailand to japan 🍜 #picturebookillustration #picturebook #illustrators #illustrationartists #illustratorsoninstagram #illustratorsoninstagram #childrensbooks #childrensbookillustration

Biskek became home for 2 months back in october + november. Stayed at the residency of @syinat_bulbul , time there was spent *sometimes* working in the studio upstairs but *mostly* consuming copious amounts of food, bread, and love is blind downstairs. Got so used to carpooling with Syinat, her husband Ruslan, and the children Sophia and Aydin that i was inducted as the unofficial fifth member of the household. I left Kyrgyzstan 10 pounds heavier and heart warmer with memories of a new extended family ❣️ #graceydiary