Jason Chin: Your Place in the Universe

February 8, 2024 - May 10, 2024

Jason Chin (American, born 1978) has written and illustrated award winning children’s books, including Redwoods, Grand Canyon, and Your Place in the Universe. His paintings in Watercress, alongside storytelling by Andrea Wang, garnered a 2022 Caldecott Medal. With a love for scientific wonders, he has illuminated the mysteries of coral reefs, redwood trees, the Galápagos Islands, gravity, and the elemental particles that make us who we are.

As a young teenager, Chin met famed author and artist Trina Schart Hyman (Little Red Riding Hood, Saint George and the Dragon) in his hometown of Lyme, New Hampshire, where she often visited his elementary school. Her early influence led him to pursue a degree in illustration from Syracuse University. Upon graduating, he found camaraderie among other children’s book enthusiasts while working at New York City’s historic Books of Wonder, and after illustrating several books by other authors, he eventually published one of his own, Redwoods, in 2007.

Chin follows his curiosities to the depths of the earth and the farthest reaches of our galaxy. He invites readers to share in his excitement for the natural world with intricate layers of inquiry: How small am I compared to a giraffe, and how tall am I compared to a gluon? How old is the Grand Canyon, and how long is the Belize barrier reef?

“Trina Schart Hyman became so fully engaged with the stories she illustrated, it was as if she was living in them. I try to copy her approach, imagining myself as the character and in the place that I’m painting,” says Chin. “I hope that readers can imagine themselves in the book when they read it.”

Delightfully, we find ourselves swept into ocean waves, hiking cliffs above ancient trails, and untangling the enigma of DNA as Jason Chin’s questions become our own wild adventures.