Ranch Studios Spotlight: Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is Ranch Studios’ first writer-in-residence and he is prolific. He’s written 72 books, had his work translated into more than 30 languages, and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. The Oakland, California–based author is currently the Library of Congress’s ninth U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (2025–2026) and a New York Times bestselling author of stories, picture books, and graphic novels for children. “I’ve written one book for adults,” he says, “but it was about children’s books.”

With Jon Klassen, he also publishes the witty and insightful Looking at Picture Books, a newsletter for adults about how the form works. He and Klassen created Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series. He describes the picture book as “an artwork on paper” and “a mass-produced art object.”

Barnett grew up in Castro Valley and studied English literature at Pomona College, where he also wrote sketch comedy. A class with novelist David Foster Wallace taught him to have “an almost religious consideration for the reader.” Taking this to heart, he keeps both the adult reading the book and the child listening to the book (or falling asleep with the book in its arms) in mind at all times. Later he began to focus on asking his readers questions instead of answering them. After moving to L.A., Barnett worked with an offshoot of the 826 Valencia nonprofit, called 826LA, co-founded by writer Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari to teach kids to read and write. “We underestimate the audience,” he says. “Kids are the most creatively liberated audience there is.”

On Looking at Picture Books, Barnett and Klassen reviewed Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats (1928) with great wit and insight. “Millions of Cats is what I consider the first modern picture book,” Barnett explains. “It feels like an old folktale. But it’s not.” The slender book had a three-color cover and black-and-white illustrations. It was not set in type; instead the text is intertwined with the illustrations, mirroring the two-fold way the narrative works with both words and pictures telling the story in tandem. It may have also been the first use in a picture book of the two-page spread, stretching a single illustration across the gutter⁠—one of the most important formal tools of the genre.

During his Ranch Studios residency, Barnett began to explore how picture books are made, swapping his role as an author for that of the publisher. He explored the book as an object, carefully considering how to create an ideal reading copy, opting for a linen cover and high-quality specs even though they cost more, he explains, “not in spite of the fact that this book is for kids, but because it is.”

“I think the picture book is one of the great literary forms. It belongs next to the novel, short story, and poetry on the shelf as one of the great ways humans tell stories, capture emotion, preserve histories, and explore new ideas,” Barnett says. “We don’t think kids are capable of understanding real art. But writing for kids, talking to kids, and listening to kids has shown me it’s the exact opposite.” ❤

macbarnett.com