And the Nominees Are . . .

A few weeks ago, Essence magazine announced their Essence Literary Awards and Save Our Libraries campaign.  Recently, they posted the nominees for each category on their website. The nominees for Children’s Books are: Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine illustrated by Kadir Nelson/Scholastic (picture book) Henry Box Brown is well known and remembered as a [ Read the full article… ]

Help! My Kids Don’t Like to Read

If you’re a teacher, author, librarian, bookstore employee, chances are that you’ve been asked, “How do I get my kids or students to read more?” or “How do I get my kids or students to like reading?” As a teacher, I was asked some variation of those questions.  Since becoming an author, I’ve been asked [ Read the full article… ]

What’s on Your Christmas List?

Last week I discovered a quote from Lenore Hershey, the former editor of McCall’s and Ladies Home Journal magazines, where she in her sage wisdom advised us, “Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.”  Now of course, I agree with her words, as both [ Read the full article… ]

Booked for the Holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Around us we see decorations, holiday sales, and traditional holiday food and drink like egg nog and candy canes.  Turn on the radio and you can hear Donny Hathaway croon “This Christmas” as well as Michael Jackson and his brothers let us know that “Santa Claus is [ Read the full article… ]