Raffi Songs to Read Books

Raffi Cavoukian is an internationally renknowned musician and performer for children, best known for hits like Baby Beluga, Bananaphone, and Down by the Bay. He is the founder of the Centre for Child Honouring, which advocates for an ecological worldview, a whole systems shift in the way we make decisions that affect our children’s world. Learn more about Raffi, his music, and his foundation at RaffiNews.com, on Twitter at @Raffi_RC, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Raffi.Cavoukian.

Jerry Smath is the illustrator for several books for children, including Thumbelina, Sammy Salami, and But No Elephants. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, NY.

Ashley Wolff is a children’s book author and illustrator in San Francisco, CA. She has created over 40 books.

Maple Lam is the author-illustrator of My Little Sister and Me, which Booklist called “accessible and appealing,” and Two Girls Want a Puppy, which School Library Journal called “delightful.” When she’s not writing or illustrating, she can be found playing competitive badminton or reading at her local public library in Los Angeles, California.

Jose Aruego was a lawyer before becoming a children’s book illustrator. . A native of the Philippines, he moved to New York City in 1956 to study at Parsons School of Design. His cartoons were published in the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post, and his illustrations can be seen in Five Little Ducks by Raffi, as well as in the 82 children’s books he wrote himself. He died in 2012.

Ariane Dewey, with her illustrating partner Jose Aruego, has illustrated over 60 children’s books. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in New York City. Her art can be seen in Five Little Ducks by Raffi.

Nadine Bernard Westcott has illustrated more than 100 books for young readers, including I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Big Picnic, Down by the Bay, and Peanut Butter and Jelly, the latter of which she also wrote. Nadine lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and divides her time between illustrating and designing her own line of fabrics.

Nina Mata is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and received her degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She has illustrated many books, including American gymnast Laurie Hernandez’s She’s Got This and the Ty’s Travels I Can Read series, and she previously worked for Sesame Street. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, their daughter, and Tabitha, their cat. Visit Nina online at www.beautifique.org.

Jaime (Jimyung) Kim was born and raised in Korea and moved to the United States when she was eighteen. Jaime works with gouache and acrylics to create illustrations inspired by childhood memories of her family, as well as movies, art, and the outside world. The sun, the moon, the sky, and stars are her favorite things, which is why they always appear in her artwork.