Children's
Janna Matthies
Janna Matthies is a picture book author and guitar-playing music teacher in Indianapolis. Her formative years were spent in southern Ohio and Chicago, where she practiced piano and violin and searched the garden as a budding entomologist. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and has called Indianapolis home for thirty years.
Janna’s children’s titles have garnered recognition, including her 2022 picture book Here We Come!, which received a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and a 2024 Indiana Authors Award. Her other award-winning works include The Goodbye Cancer Garden and Two Is Enough, and she also edits the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s “Teddy Bear Concert” picture book series.
Today, Janna teaches early-elementary music and cares for her family, which includes a howling husky named Juneau.
2026 Children's Shortlist: Over in the Garden
Over in the Garden is a tale where children tend to a community garden by weeding, planting, composting, and harvesting.
2024 Children's Winner: Here We Come!
A boy and his bear head into the evening air with a tune in their hearts and a skip in their steps. Extending a friendly “Wanna come?” to each animal or child they meet, they soon form a musical parade under the moonlight…until a “drip on a drum” changes the course of this rhythmic, rhyming, read-aloud adventure.
