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… ]
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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… ]
Leah Henderson and the Release of Her Debut Novel
On February 8, 2017, Brown Bookshelf member, Tracey Baptiste interviewed Leah Henderson about her upcoming novel, One Shadow on the Wall. Leah discussed the spark that led to the idea, her writing process that led to an agent, an editor and a book soon to be published. Her story was fascinating. Read it here [ Read the full article… ]
Nicola Yoon on #BlackGirlMagic, How Love Changes Everything, and Showing the Possibilities
Nicola Yoon is the #1 NYT bestselling author of Everything, Everything, which is now a major motion picture, and The Sun Is Also a Star, a National Book Award finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. She grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los [ Read the full article… ]
The “Hole” in KidLit
For years I worked as an anthology editor for McGraw-Hill and other educational publishing houses. My job was choosing literature for elementary schools, pairing fiction with nonfiction, commissioning new pieces to work with published works, and balancing a very long list of authors and illustrators to ensure that we had even numbers between sexes and [ Read the full article… ]
Where Do We Go From Here? Continuing the Conversation With Pat Cummings
Here at the Brown Bookshelf, we’ve spoken often and long on the issues and ideas expressed in the Open Declaration. We do this work to lift up our young readers and show them how they can survive, thrive, and soar in this world. For many of us, the way forward might be clear, for others, [ Read the full article… ]
What’s New with The Brown Bookshelf
The Brown Bookshelf presented at the Texas Library Association conference. Thank you to the Black Caucus of TLA who sponsored our session, Overlooked Books who hosted our signing and amazing librarians like the ones from Houston in the picture who showed us lots of love. Thank you to everyone who supports the work we do. Completing our [ Read the full article… ]
The Brown Bookshelf at TLA
We’ve taken our 10th anniversary celebration on the road. Please join us today at 2:45 p.m. for our Texas Library Association session, Celebrating Diversity: The Brown Bookshelf Salutes Great Books for Kids (Room 303ABC, Ballroom level). The presenters are Gwendolyn Hooks and Kelly Starling Lyons. Here are the session hand-outs which include book lists and resources: BBS Booklist TLA TLA [ Read the full article… ]