Shadra studied design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and later went on to complete her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picture book, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Shadra travels the country conducting workshops and sharing her work with children, teachers, and librarians. She currently teaches illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
Client List
Lee and Low Books
BloomsburyUSA
Random House Books for Children
Candlewick
Simon & Schuster
Penguin Books for Young Readers
Scholastic
Awards / Honors
Ezra Jack Keats Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2009
Coretta Scott King, John Steptoe Award, New Talent, 2009
NAACP Award for Our Children Can Soar
NAACP Image Award Nominations for White Water and Eliza's Freedom Road
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio “Best Book” Award for White Water
Eliza's Freedom Road: Underground Railroad Diary, Simon & Schuster
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, Random House
Bird, Lee & Low Books
Reviews
Praise for A Place Where Hurricanes Happen:
Strickland's quietly powerful watercolors make this story of four fictional Ninth Ward children caught in Hurricane Katrina especially affecting.
—Publisher's Weekly
In Vibrant mixed-media images, award-winning illustrator Strickland extends the drama, feeling, and individual stories.
—Booklist
Heartfelt reviews for Bird:
...clear mixed-media pictures of an African American boy who loves to draw...The spacious scenes of the boy beneath birds soaring high above the city streets echoes what Bird discovers: that art can inspire, comfort, and elevate.
—Booklist
