Steptoe, Javaka (1971- …), is an award-winning African American illustrator and author of children’s literature. Steptoe creates many of his colorful illustrations using the collage process. Artists create collages by gluing pieces of paper, metal, or other materials onto a surface. Steptoe photographs his three-dimensional collages to create book illustrations. He wrote that he uses this style because it reflects “…how Black folks survived 400 years of oppression, taking the scraps of life and transforming them into art forms.”
Steptoe won the 2017 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations for Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (2016), which he also wrote. The Caldecott award is given to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children published the previous year.
Steptoe won the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration twice. Coretta Scott King Awards, given by the American Library Association each year, honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books portraying the Black experience for young readers. Steptoe won the award in 1998 for In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers (1997). He won the 2017 award for Radiant Child. Steptoe’s other works include illustrations for Charlotte Zolotow’s Do You Know What I’ll Do? (2000), Nikki Grimes’s A Pocketful of Poems (2001), Karen English’s Hot Day on Abbott Avenue (2004), and Gary Golio’s Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow (2010). Steptoe wrote and illustrated The Jones Family Express (2003).
Steptoe was born on April 19, 1971, in New York City. His mother was the artist Stephanie Douglas, and his father was John Steptoe, one of the first notable African American children’s authors and illustrators. Javaka graduated from the High School of Art and Design in New York City in 1989 and earned a B.F.A. degree from the Cooper Union in 1995. He has taught and participated in educational programs at children’s museums around New York City.
