A Diverse group of award-winning illustrators & authors creating across many industries.
London Ladd

Agent: Lori Nowicki

London Ladd is a graduate of Syracuse University with a BFA in illustration. London works primarily in a painterly style with acrylic, building opaque layers atop a foundation of thin washes, in a way that brings his colors to life. He carries a sketchbook with him everywhere he goes, constantly perfecting his craft. His published books include Midnight Teacher, Frederick’s Journey: The Life of Frederick Douglass, Waiting for Pumpsie, and March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World. London lives in Syracuse, NY.

Client List

Harper Collins
New York Times
Denene Millner Books
Philomel
Rise (Penguin)
Just Us Books
Scientific American
Disney/Hyperion
Scholastic Press
Amazon Publishing
Charlesbridge
Lee & Low Books
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
McGraw-Hill Companies
Element LLC
Six Red Marbles

Awards / Honors

  • 2024 Starred Reviews (Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, BCCB) – When I Hear Spirituals
  • 2024 Junior Library Guild – When I Hear Spirituals
  • 2024 3×3 Honorable Mention – You So Black
  • 2024 Starred Review (Kirkus) – My Hair is a Book
  • 2024 Bank Street Best of the Year – You So Black
  • 2024 Premio Campoy-Ada Award from the Academia Norteameriana de Lengua Espanol! – Frederick’s Journey
  • 2024 Black Caucus ALA Best of the Best List for 2023 – My Red, White, and Blue
  • 2023 Jane Addams Peace Foundation Children’s Book Award Finalist- My Red, White, and Blue
  • 2023 Bank Street College’s Best Books of the Year- Black Gold
  • 2022 Kirkus Best Picture Books of the Year list – Black Gold
  • 2022 Society of Illustrators Original Art – Black Gold
  • 2022 Society of Illustrators-LA Illustration West 60
  • 2021 Communication Arts Annual 62
  • 2021 American Illustration 41
  • 2020 American Illustration 40
  • 2019 National Council for the Social Studies, Carter G. Woodson Book Award Honor – Midnight Teacher
  • 2018 Parents’ Choice Silver Award – Midnight Teacher
  • 2016 Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year – Frederick’s Journey
  • 2016 ALA Notable Children’s Book: Middle Readers – Frederick’s Journey
  • 2015 NYPL Children’s Book Recommendations – Frederick’s Journey
  • 2015 Kids’ Indie Next List – Frederick’s Journey
  • 2015 CCBC Choices – Lend a Hand
  • 2015 CBC/NCSS Notable Trade Book for Young People – Under the Freedom Tree
  • 2015 NCTE Notable Poetry List – Lend a Hand
  • 2015 Delaware Diamonds – Lend a Hand
  • 2009 ALA Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Children’s Video – March On!
  • 2008 Parent’s Choice Award in Historical Fiction – March On!

Reviews

Praise for Midnight Teacher

“[The] picture book’s detailed, realistic illustrations were created using acrylic paint and colored pencil. Ladd’s artwork shows Lilly Ann’s determination to improve lives through literacy and will also familiarize readers with the book’s historical settings.”

Kirkus Starred Review
Praise for Frederick's Journey

“Ladd’s powerful and dramatic full-bleed art is richly textured and detailed. Expressive faces, tranquil Maryland scenes, and battlefields fill the pages. ”

Kirkus Starred Review
Praise for Frederick's Journey

“Striking visuals. Ladd casts a sepia glow in handsome scenes of key figures, and his illustrator’s note adds a fun light on his painting of them.”

School Library Journal
Praise for Lend a Hand

“In each free-verse poem, a child narrator recalls acting generously. Coupled with expansive, freeze-the-moment acrylic, colored-pencil, and pastel illustrations, frequent line breaks invite readers to move slowly through each poem and linger in the moments of kindness. Ladd’s art particularizes the diverse array of narrators, themes, and settings. ”

The Horn Book Guide
Praise for Under the Freedom Tree

“Ladd's evocative and subtly textured acrylic, pastel, and colored pencil art reflects the evolving tenor of the story as uncertainty gives way to hope.”

Publishers Weekly
Praise for Under the Freedom Tree

“Ladd uses acrylic and pastel paints with colored pencils to present a realistic depiction of events, the danger that the men faced while escaping and the jubiliation as they listened to the words that freed them. A valuable addition to the expanding canon of books on slaves escaping to freedom.”

Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Oprah: The Little Speaker

“Ladd's acrylic paintings dominate the spreads. His palette favors warm earthly colors; his depiction of Oprah and her family are somewhat reminiscent of the intensity and emotion found in Jacob Lawrence's work.”

Children's Literature
Praise for Oprah: The Little Speaker

“The girl's drive and her grandmother's strength emanate from Ladd's bold acrylic paintings, which feature closeup, lifelike portraits.”

Publishers Weekly
Praise for Oprah: The Little Speaker

“Ladd's painterly oils are well-executed and do a good job of depicting the setting and time period.”

School Library Journal
Praise for March On!

“Ladd, a talented figure painter and first-time picture-book illustrator, offers his own fresh and affecting take on these now familiar events; his images expand and enliven the well-known facts and ably expand on Farris's powerful family story. This is an essential addition to family, church, school and public-library collections.”

Kirkus Reviews
Praise for March On!

“Ladd, in his first picture book, demonstrates a rare talent for portraiture - even the faces in his crowd scenes are individuated. Like Farris, he resists the temptation to lionize his subject: instead of looking iconic, his King looks human - in other words, capable of inspiring the reader.”

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
Praise for Lend a Hand

“Acrylic and pastel paintings depict children, teens, and adults of varying ages, races and abilities going about their daily routines: eating lunch in a cafeteria, getting a haircut, reading in a library...this is a gentle book that will add value to any classroom or library collection.”

School Library Journal

Featured Portfolio

Illustrated Books

My Hair is a Book (HarperCollins)
Black Gold (Harper Collins)
My Red, White, and Blue (Philomel)
You So Black (Denene Millner Books)
American Anthem (Philomel Books)
Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School (Lee and Low Books)
Frederick's Journey: The Life of Frederick Douglass (Disney/Hyperion)
Waiting for Pumpsie (Charlesbridge)
Under the Freedom Tree (Charlesbridge Publishing)
Lend a Hand (Lee & Low Books)
March On! (Scholastic)
Oprah: The Little Speaker (Marshall Cavendish)
Show More

Videos

Black Arts Speak: London Ladd
Under the Freedom Tree book trailer
Man of Many Colors