28 Days

When we set out to define our mission for the 28 Days Later campaign, our vision was crystal clear: To highlight African-American (Black) youth literature creators. Children’s books written by or about African-Americans make up a small percentage of the publishing pie, and those works often flow under the radar of teachers and librarians. Our [ Read the full article… ]

I’d planned to begin this post by stating the number of books written by author/storyteller/lecturer/biographer Virginia Hamilton. But I couldn’t find a definitive answer. One source credited the author with writing 30 books. Another, 35. Yet another, 40. So let me begin by stating that Virginia Hamilton has authored a whole lot of books! A [ Read the full article… ]

There’s probably not a children’s author out there who hasn’t had to answer the question, “So what’s it like writing for children? How do you do it?” I always have an answer, but it’s something that’s much easier answered by simply picking up a children’s book and reading it. Once you do, you realize that [ Read the full article… ]

Derrick Barnes is no stranger to the Brown Bookshelf community.  Last year, we did a spotlight on his book The Making of Dr. Truelove as well as announced the debut of the Ruby and the Booker Boys series.  In case it is not clear, the future is bright for author Derrick Barnes.  Full of optimism, [ Read the full article… ]

Tanita S. Davis is an oddity in the world of children’s and young adult authors – she’s one of the few authors that actually set out to write YA fiction. School Library Journal calls her first novel for young adults, A La Carte (Knopf, 2008) a book “with a lot of heart,” and Kirkus says [ Read the full article… ]

Floyd Cooper defies The Brown Bookshelf’s mission of highlighting children’s literature creators whose works may be flying under the radar of teachers and librarians. His name isn’t flying under anything. In fact, he’s probably one of the best known, most celebrated, and highly regarded artists in the industry. He has won the Coretta Scott King [ Read the full article… ]

Pat Cummings’ first drawings, she admits, were more like scribbles than anything resembling art. She would spend entire afternoons coloring them, and then her mother would try to guess what they were. A dinosaur? A duck? Or maybe even her Daddy? Although no one could figure them out, that didn’t stop her mother from bragging [ Read the full article… ]

In elementary school, Angela Johnson had a special teacher who could create worlds with words. She would read stories after lunch and make characters spring up around Johnson: “Book people came to life,” Johnson shared in one interview. “They sat beside me in Maple Grove School. That is when I knew.” Johnson wanted to be a writer. More than 40 books later, Johnson is not only [ Read the full article… ]