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Mac Barnett

Children's Author

Mac Barnett is the bestselling author of more than 60 books for children, including Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, both illustrated by Jon Klassen, and both winners of a Caldecott Honor and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award. He loves his work because, he says, kids are “the sincerest appreciators of stories, a uniquely receptive and honest audience.” Mac was named the 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress.

Bio

Mac Barnett is a New York Times-bestselling author of stories for children. He is the author of more than 60 books for children, including Twenty Questions, Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, A Polar Bear in the Snow, and Extra Yarn, as well as the popular “Mac B., Kid Spy” series of novels, “The First Cat in Space” graphic novels and “The Shapes Trilogy” picture books.

Mac’s work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. His books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Awards, three E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award as well as numerous international awards — including Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis, China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, The Netherlands’ Silver Griffel, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. 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. Mac lives in Oakland, California.

Mac was named the 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress (opens in a new window), the ninth book creator to receive this honor.

Mac grew up in California, and graduated from Pomona College where he studied literature under the writer David Foster Wallace. He was always “obsessed” with books and knew he wanted to be a writer, but didn’t figure out what kind until he worked at a kids’ camp in Berkeley one summer. Mac would make up stories for the kids and gained a reputation as the man with the fantastical tales. In a 2014 TED Talk, Mac said, “My job is that I lie to children, but they’re honest lies.” Mac was particularly influenced by The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.

After college, Mac worked at 826 Valencia, a non-profit tutoring center that helps kids with with their writing and homework (founded by author Dave Eggars). He later became the executive director of the SoCal branch, 826LA, where he established the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a convenience store for time travelers.

The Picture Book Manifesto (opens in a new window), written by Mac and signed by 21 other picture book creators declares that “A picture book should be fresh, honest, piquant, and beautiful.”

Learn more at Mac Barnett’s website (opens in a new window).

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