Celebrate Floyd Cooper Day with Us During Children’s Book Week
In 2026, Floyd Cooper Day is May 6. On this page, find resources about Floyd and his connection to Boyds Mills.
An Annual Celebration
Every year during May Children’s Book Week, The Children’s Book Council’s Every Child a Reader celebrates Floyd Cooper Day!
On social media, follow and use #FloydCooperDay to share about Floyd and his work.
“I will always treasure the time I had to learn and grow with you as your mentee. I learned and continue to learn from your process. You were the hardest working man in our industry, a caring friend…and sometimes it’s still really hard for me to believe you’re gone.”—Author/Illustrator Daria Peoples, Floyd Cooper Mentee
Ways to Celebrate Floyd’s Life, Legacy and Work
Bestselling author and poet Nikki Grimes has written an original poem to go along with a painting by Floyd. See the poem and painting here.
Visit Floyd’s website to learn more about him and to explore the over 100 picture books he helped create.
Watch or read some wonderful interviews with Floyd:
- Watch as Floyd pays a visit to Coffee Break from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers! He chats about about his distinctive illustration style and gives some advice for aspiring illustrators.
- Read a great 2009 interview that author/illustrator Don Tate did with Floyd on The Brown Bookshelf about process, being a working illustrator, and staying inspired.
- Enjoy a video visit with Floyd on the debut episode of “Just Us &,” where hosts Wade and Cheryl Hudson, founders of Just Us Books, talk to book creators and others.
- Watch Floyd Cooper Reads from Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre and Shares His Family Connection, from Lerner Publishing
Watch Floyd Read Aloud His Book Max and the Tag-Along Moon
How Teachers, Librarians, Educators, and Bookstore Owners Can Participate in Floyd Cooper Day
Share with young people Floyd Cooper’s bountiful body of work in the voices of beloved and well-known authors!
KidLit TV has produced original videos of Crystal Allen, Tameka Fryer Brown, Judy Allen Dodson, Patti Gauch, Nikki Grimes, Leah Henderson, Cheryl Willis Hudson & Wade Hudson, Sharon Langley, Torrey Maldonado, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Charles Smith, and Don Tate reading from their favorite Floyd Cooper books. You can find all the videos here.
Download a one-page list of Floyd Cooper’s books in print.
Download a one-page list of links to educators’ guides for Floyd’s books.
Watch a video from the Yosemite Conservancy of author Carmen Bogan reading aloud Where’s Rodney? which features Floyd’s illustrations:
Get Caught Reading Posters
Posters of Floyd’s co-creators Daria Peoples and Carmen Bogan are included in the “Get Caught Reading” series!
Order Carmen’s poster reading Where’s Rodney?
Order Daria’s poster reading Tasha’s Voice.
Make a Display of Floyd’s Books in Your Classroom or Library!
Don’t forget to share them on socials with #Floyd Cooper Day! Here are two examples from the Dedham Public Library and the Ferguson Library.
Remembering Floyd Cooper
Obituary from the New York Times: Floyd Cooper, Illustrator of Black Life for Children, Dies at 65
Obituary from Publishers Weekly
Unparalleled: Floyd Cooper, A Literary Remembrance, from Carole Boston Weatherford
The Joy of Working with Floyd Cooper, from Patti Gauch, Floyd’s first editor
Celebrating Floyd Cooper, from Tracey Baptiste on The Brown Bookshelf
The Society of Illustrators gave Floyd the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
On the Floyd Cooper Scholarship page, watch a memorial tribute from Boyds Mills and The Brown Bookshelf.
Floyd Cooper + Boyds Mills: A Longtime Friendship
Floyd Cooper was a faculty member at Boyds Mills for over 30 years. He and founder Kent Brown shared a mutual admiration; Kent purchased many of Floyd’s paintings (which can still be seen around the Boyds Mills campus) and Floyd provided the introduction when Kent received a Carle Honors Angel Award in 2012.
Floyd was a mentor at our inaugural Diversity Fellowship in 2019, and served as faculty mentor at dozens of workshops over the years. One of his mentees, Daria Peoples, was chosen to finish his artwork so that his final book, Tasha’s Voice, could be published: read more about Daria and Floyd here.
Floyd Cooper’s
Cottage
at Boyds Mills
Floyd Cooper Scholarship
at Boyds Mills
Honoring the contributions of Floyd Cooper to the field of children’s literature through his mentorship, writing, and illustration, this scholarship celebrates illustrators and Black and Indigenous communities. Learn more and donate to the scholarship here.
We Always Enjoyed Floyd’s Visits to Our Retreat Center:
Floyd Cooper On Visiting the Boyds Mills Retreat Center
“What I love the best about teaching [here] are the students who choose to come. Those with eagerness, curiosity, and love of the craft show up every time! Oh, it could also be the transformative atmosphere of a remote natural setting with enthusiastic faculty and chefts, or the cozy cabins and the grand workspace of the Barn. But I always leave with sweet memories of the students I meet and share with.”—Floyd Cooper
