28 Days

Reading Ben Philippe’s first book opened a whole new world for me. The mind of a Canadian teen and how it might feel for them to move to the United States. Like it’s name, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, it truly reminded me of what it was like to be a teen – [ Read the full article… ]

Kereen Getten’s debut novel WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU MANGOS is described as “a celebration of island life as well as a rich, lyrical mystery.” From her web site: “Twelve-year-old Clara lives on an island that visitors call exotic. But there’s nothing exotic about it to Clara. She loves eating ripe mangos off the ground, running [ Read the full article… ]

Valerie Bolling is not only a talented educator and debut picture book author, she’s a marketing dynamo and caring advocate for others. The media section of her website has links to dozens of interviews she did to promote Let’s Dance! (illustrated by Maine Diaz, published by Boyds Mills Press). Zoom readalouds, panel discussions, author visits, [ Read the full article… ]

“Don’t give yourself an option to fail.”* Chrystal Giles Born, raised and still living in North Carolina Chrystal Giles has come full circle with children’s literacy.  Even as a child, she always had a love for books.  Roaming up and down the aisles at the library, coming home with a tall stack of books, and [ Read the full article… ]

For book lovers looking for their next impossible-to- put down young adult novel, visit your neighborhood bookstore or library and check out The STARS AND THE BLACKNESS BETWEEN THEM. Junauda Petrus is the author and writes from her home in Minneapolis. Her book has won the Minnesota Book Award, a Coretta Scott King Honor, ALA [ Read the full article… ]

I’m a very visual person. Oftentimes, I purchase picture books because of the art, without really knowing the author’s or illustrator’s name. That caused me some embarrassment a few years ago at the Original Art show in NYC, a Society of Illustrators event. While checking out the art on the walls, an artist walked up [ Read the full article… ]

Today’s Brown Bookshelf honoree is a director, human rights activist, and thespian, as well as a novelist. Kimberly L. Jones began using words to enact change when she was just six years old. While in DC with her mom, Kimberly was hanging out in the lobby with her older sister Angie, and a news crew [ Read the full article… ]

Chatting with the delightful Marie Arnold was like settling in for tea with a longtime friend. And as a writer for children (as well as teens and adults), Arnold writes from a place of care and empathy. In her debut middle grade novel, THE YEAR I FLEW AWAY, “I really wanted to go against that [ Read the full article… ]