Derrick Barnes is the author of the New York Times bestseller The King of Kindergarten, as well as the critically acclaimed multi-award-winning picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the 2018 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. He also wrote the bestselling chapter book series Ruby and the Booker Boys. In 2020, he became the only author in the history of the award to have won the Kirkus Prize twice with his twelfth release, the New York Times bestseller, I Am Every Good Thing. Derrick is a graduate of Jackson State University and was the first African American male creative copywriter hired by greeting cards giant Hallmark Cards. He is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, but currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his enchanting wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes, and their four sons, the Mighty Barnes Brothers.