Author Panel: Melissa Iwai

Melissa Iwai is an award-winning author/illustrator of picture books, including Soup Day, Pizza Day, Dumplings for Lili, which was a Crystal Kite Award winner and Bank Street Best Book. Her I Can Read Series, Gigi and Ojiji, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and Gigi and Ojiji was a Theodor Geisel Honor recipient in 2023. When she is not creating, she can be found cooking and doing crossword puzzles with her husband, author Denis Markell, in Brooklyn.

The focus of this panel will be on authentic voices as well as early-reader series, so Melissa will sharing about her GIGI AND OJIJI series. 

Melissa echoes the panelists feeling that these books help readers have an edge to advance and feel pride when they're learning how to read, feeling they can do it. In terms of illustration, the art is helping kid interpret. Like any book, the illustrations compliment the text, but particularly with early reader books you don't want any ambiguity, or for anything to complicate it. 

In GIGI OJIJI Melissa wanted to show her main character's emotions so the facial expressions and body language were key. 

How did Melissa come to the early-reader format? It started during the pandemic. Melissa's agent let her know that a particular editor was looking for early readers featuring diverse characters. She asked Melissa if she had any ideas, and she did. It took meetings, writing a pilot books, and much more before she actually got the contract. 

Melissa shares how important it for kids to see themselves in books, and in her book she was also able to include some Japanese words. For the kids who have that background, they see themselves in those pages, but for those kids who don't, they get to learn a bit about the language and background. 

Melissa found researching other early-readers very valuable, and she looked at a wide range of levels. There are a lot of constraints in the early reader (both in text and illustration). She found those constraints helped to guide her and help her execute her vision. The guidelines shouldn't constrict you, rather guide you. Reading many many books gives you and overall sense of the genre.