It’s that time. The submissions window has officially opened for the 11th annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Month celebration of black children’s book creators. We will take nominations today through November 10th. Over the past decade, we have proudly saluted more than 250 authors and illustrators through our signature initiative. But there [ Read the full article… ]
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Voices of Change: Youth Speak
Untitled -by A, 13 Strove through strife A motto for Black children Blackness is excellence We are not too dark to be noticed It is not a reason for abuse Blackness is beauty Community Magic Love Hardships Strength. They tried to shape our hands To fit only chains We made a fist. To show love [ Read the full article… ]
Voices of Change: A New Series on the Brown Bookshelf
“As we struggle to bridge the chasm and search for common ground, we must remember our strength, show our resilience and think of the children.” Those were the words of the Brown Bookshelf’s Declaration in Support of Children in November of 2016, and we reaffirm that commitment. In the wake of continued violence, bigotry, and [ Read the full article… ]
Throwback Thursday: Jesmyn Ward
Since this post was published in 2015, Jesmyn Ward has come out with two new titles: The Fire This Time is an anthological response to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time which addressed race on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In Ward’s anthology several writers reexamine race in America. Sing, Unburied, Sing is due out [ Read the full article… ]
Grown Too Soon
Too many times we’ve heard the refrain “gone too soon” to allude to a life cut short. A wistful phrase lamenting the potential of one who has earned their wings prematurely. Sadly, the sentiment can also be applied to children of color and the premature death of their innocence. But I’ll call it grown too [ Read the full article… ]
Throwback Thursday: Justina Ireland
As a follow-up to Tuesday’s Black Kids on Covers post, here’s a look back at one of the authors included as she discusses her first two novels and how music helped her to write them. I wonder what music she wrote to while working on her upcoming Dread Nation! Enjoy this throwback post… What [ Read the full article… ]
Black Kids on Covers
This is a wonderful time in children’s book publishing, where the faces of black girls and boys on covers is not an anomaly. When I was a kid, I almost never saw myself on the cover of a book, and certainly not ones as spectacular as those upcoming in the next few months. There was [ Read the full article… ]
Sweet Blackberry: Karyn Parsons Is Sharing Stories We All Need Now
It seems like Karyn Parsons was born to start Sweet Blackberry, the non-profit organization dedicated to bringing little known stories of African American achievement to light. Her mother was a librarian, and “I did grow up in libraries,” says the star of the long-running hit show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “The advantage of having [ Read the full article… ]