Andrea Davis was born September 25, 1963, in
Washington D.C. and was raised in Connecticut. Her parents were involved in the
civil rights movement and exposed her to the cause from early on, even taking her to the annual conference of the
National Urban League during many of her
summer vacations. Pinkney graduated from
Syracuse University in 1985 with a degree in journalism and began working as an editor at
Mechanix Illustrated. She then went on to work as a senior editor at
Essence, as well as an editor for the book publishers
Simon & Schuster and
Scholastic. While working at one of these early editing jobs, she met
Brian Pinkney, a
Caldecott Honor-winning children's book illustrator, whom she later married. The two have collaborated on a number of books, including
Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down,
Duke Ellington,
Seven Candles for Kwanzaa, and
Dear Benjamin Banneker. She was chosen to deliver the 2014
May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture at the
University of Minnesota Libraries, Children's Literature Research Collections, Saturday, May 3, 2014, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CDT). She was cited in January 2013 for "significant contributions to literature for young people provided through a body of work that brings a deeper understanding of African American heritage". She currently lives in
Brooklyn, New York. == Honors and awards ==