Author: Kelly Starling Lyons

Just wanted to thank everyone for the fantastic nominations! So excited to learn about new authors and illustrators. We look forward to celebrating our new class of 28 Days Later honorees in February.  We appreciate your support. Also, we have some happy news: The Brown Bookshelf has been named a Great Website for Kids by a [ Read the full article… ]

Get ready to rep your favorites. It’s that time. The submissions window has officially opened for the sixth annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Month celebration of picture books, middle grade and young adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans. We will take nominations today through November 2. Over the past five [ Read the full article… ]

Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads and father-figures. Reposting a list of picture books that celebrate these great men. Please share your favorite books about dads of color in the comments. Thank you: Too often, we just hear stories about dads who aren’t there. But there are so many fathers who are. They are [ Read the full article… ]

Author and quilter Kyra E. Hicks has great news to share: She sold out of copies of her wonderful picture book, Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria. Yay! Go Kyra! It’s now an ebook available on Kindle. Through tomorrow (April 29), Kyra is offering a free Kindle copy of her book. Here’s the link: http://amzn.to/IXL9wv [ Read the full article… ]

We’re peacock proud around BBS. Team member and award-winning illustrator Don Tate celebrated the book birthday for his fantastic authorial debut last week: It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw (Lee & Low). Already, the book, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, has won big praise from industry journals.  Kirkus and Booklist gave it starred reviews. It’s [ Read the full article… ]

I’m often the go-to person for friends looking for multicultural children’s book recommendations. But when a buddy asked me recently for suggestions of Easter-themed books that feature African-American characters, I was stumped.  Thankfully, help was just a click away. Through online searches and suggestions from my FaceBook friend, Kathleen T. Horning of the Cooperative Children’s Book [ Read the full article… ]

On Saturday, February 4, Philadelphia’s African American Children’s Book Fair turns 20. It’s a milestone that means a lot to founder Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati. “Twenty years of putting on this book fair has reinforced my belief that children will read if you put good books in front of them,” she said. “They will read if they [ Read the full article… ]

My picture book, Ellen’s Broom (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) debuted yesterday. Yay! It’s a Reconstruction-era story, illustrated by Daniel Minter and published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, that celebrates family, love and freedom. Right now, I’m on a 9-day blog tour. At each stop, there  is something special like a review, interview or guest post. You can [ Read the full article… ]