Happy Children’s Book Week! Today, we’re reviving our occasional series, Making Our Own Market. All week, we’ll showcase guest posts by children’s book bloggers, independently-published authors and more with inspiring testimonies and tips to raise awareness of work by Black children’s book creators. Our series will explore questions like these: How can we do a [ Read the full article… ]
Author: Kelly Starling Lyons
Mother’s Day Reads
Mother’s Day is around the corner. It’s a great time to share picture books by Black children’s book creators that celebrate moms, grandmas, mother figures and family bonds. Here’s a list to get you started. Click each cover to learn more. Please share your favorite books saluting moms in the comments. Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah [ Read the full article… ]
Standing Strong Together
“As people of color, we can turn what the dominant culture deems our weaknesses into sources of strength for our art. We know different kinds of fear than they do, which gives us a different understanding of true courage. Write that. We’ve been hated on more than they have, so we have a different understanding [ Read the full article… ]
Brave. Black. First: Guest Post by Cheryl Willis Hudson
Co-founder of Just Us Books, Diversity Jedi, artist, quilter and award-winning author, Cheryl Willis Hudson brings intention, meaning and magic to everything she touches. Her latest book, Brave. Black. First.: 50+ African American Women Who Changed the World (Crown, 2020), is her latest outstanding project. Beautifully illustrated by Erin K. Robinson and published in collaboration [ Read the full article… ]
Announcing the 13th Class of 28 Days Later Honorees
We have a list! Our signature campaign, 28 Days Later, is designed to celebrate Black children’s book creators and raise awareness of those who may be under the radar of librarians, educators and families. The list is created through considering nominations posted on our site and internal research. Each day of Black History Month, we [ Read the full article… ]
Stop and Think Reading List and Resources
Thank you to everyone who attended Stop and Think: The Brown Bookshelf Examines Representation in Children Literature. Your support meant so much. Our mission is to center and celebrate Black children’s book creators. Here are resources from our NCTE program: Book evaluation questions: In what ways does Black joy shine in the story and art? [ Read the full article… ]
Anansesem’s Caribbean Children’s/YA Online Bookstore Launched
Volumes of Pleasure By Summer Edward, M.Ed., RYT 200 *For the purposes of this article, the phrase ‘children’s and young adult books’ has been abbreviated to ‘CYA books.’ I’m pleased to share a project I’ve been working on for the past couple of months: Anansesem, the online magazine covering Caribbean children’s and young adult literature, [ Read the full article… ]
Family Reunions: Coming Together & Going Home
As a child, my grandma would take my brother and me to land in Gibsonia, PA where she grew up. Relatives would come together at Woods Grove, named for her family, for reunions and fun. I heard stories of drinking water from the spring, cooking feasts and dancing into the night. As her words spun [ Read the full article… ]