James Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome collaborated on their first book together with the biography Satchel Paige, an ALA Notable Book and a Bank Street College “Best Children’s Book of the Year. They later created Quilt Alphabet, a collection of alphabet poems, Quilt Counting, Major Taylor: Champion Cyclist, Young Pele, Words Set Me Free, Light in the Darkness, Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the first Black and White Jazz Band in History, Freedom’s School, My Story, My Dance, Just a Lucky So and So: The Story of Louis Armstrong. Their newest title Germs: Fact and Fiction, Friends and Foes, was released in January. In the fall of 2017, Holiday House will release their verse biography of Harriet Tubman, Before She Was Harriet.
James and Lesa’s books have received numerous honors and awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book for Picture Book, the Coretta Scott King award, Coretta Scott King Honor Award, two NAACP Awards , Kirkus Best Books, two Top 10 Sports Books for Youth, the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Award, and an Orbis Pictus Recommended Book. They live in Rhinebeck, NY with their family and St. Bernard.