John’s Turn

E. B. White Read-Aloud winner Mac Barnett celebrates individuality in a story told with tenderness and subtlety.

　　It’s John’s big day at school today – a performance for Sharing Gifts time. His bag is carefully packed and prepared, his classmates are ready, and the curtain is waiting to open. John is nervous, looking out at all the other children staring back at him. But he takes a big breath and begins. Mac Barnett’s compassionate text and Kate Berube’s expressive art tell the story of a child who finds the courage to show others his talent for dancing.

Mac Barnett is a New York Times bestselling author of over 50 children’s books, including Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, Just Because, John’s Turn and How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? as well as the Brixton Brothers mystery series, The First Cat in Space graphic novel series and the Shapes picture book series. His books have been translated into over 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. He is a two-time recipient of the Caldecott Honor, and has won various awards including three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, andthree E.B. White Read Aloud Awards. His Shapes series of picture books, with illustrator Jon Klassen, has been adapted into Shape Island, a stop-motion animated TV series on Apple TV+. He lives in California. Find him online at macbarnett.com and on Instagram and X as @macbarnett.

Kate Berube is the author-illustrator of Hannah and Sugar, which won the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award and the Oregon Book Award for Children’s Literature, and Mae’s First Day of School, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for Children’s Literature. More recently Kate has illustrated John’s Turn by Mac Barnett, which was selected as a Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Book of the Year, and Willow the White House Cat by First Lady Jill Biden, a New York Times bestseller. Kate lives in Oregon, USA with her family. She can be found online at kateberube.com or on Instagram as @kateberubestudio.