28 Days Year: 2013

Honestly, today’s honoree needs no introduction. We’re already fans of the beloved Ashley Bryan, aren’t we? Known for his extraordinary range and depth of talent, Bryan uses paint, poetry, music, and collage to tell his popular stories. Born in Harlem, New York, and raised in the Bronx, Bryan describes his childhood as “an idyllic time, full of art [ Read the full article… ]

The Children’s Book Council once identified James E. Ransome as “one of the 75 authors and illustrators everyone should know”…and we agree. The Coretta Scott King Illustration Award winner and oft co-collaborator with wife, Lesa Cline-Ransome, is known for creating stunning art for popular picture books such as Uncle Jed’s Barbershop (Simon & Schuster), Visiting [ Read the full article… ]

Sultans, magic, Sinbad and sorcerers!  Who can resist?  With a perfect title, THE BOOK OF WONDERS, readers will find everything they could want in this mystical, fantasy debut by Jasmine Richards.  The Brown Bookshelf is honored to present her in our spotlight on Day 18 of the 28 Days Later Program. Jasmine Richards was born in London, [ Read the full article… ]

Arna Wendell Bontemps was an award winning author born in 1902 in Alexandria, Louisiana. When he was four, his family moved to southern California. He loved books and read everything even if his minister father didn’t approve. Entering and winning a poetry contest after graduating from Pacific Union College in 1923, inspired him to move to [ Read the full article… ]

Tololwa M. Mollel describes on his website the first time he had a new book to call his own. He stared at it. He smelled the pages. He cherished the words that transported him into different lives and worlds.”When I finally began school and to enjoy access to books, like a parched throat thirsts for water, I [ Read the full article… ]

Lyah B. LeFlore is the author of the young adult novels, The World Is Mine and Can’t Hold Me Down in the Come Up series. Both are published by Simon & Schuster. In a video interview on Simon & Schuster’s website, Lyah said the Come Up books are about a group of multi-ethnic kids “taking [ Read the full article… ]

Ann Tanksley is the illustrator of My Heart Will Not Sit Down (Knoff, 2012), written by Mara Rockliff. Ann is a fine artist who graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). She is the illustrator of the picture book The Six Fools by Zora Neale Hurston, and the creator of a [ Read the full article… ]

“‘So do you really believe that in the future we’re going to have the kind of trouble you write about in your books?’ a student asked me as I was signing books after a talk. The young man was referring to the troubles I’d described in Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, [ Read the full article… ]