The Brown Bookshelf Team would like to thank everyone who signed on to, shared, and supported our Open Declaration in Support of Children. As we move toward the celebration of our tenth 28 Days Later campaign, we are including plans to, as the Declaration states, “create…empower children, affirm their lives, and stand up for change.” [ Read the full article… ]
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A Declaration in Support of Children
Children’s literature may be the most influential literary genre of all. Picture books, chapter books, middle-grade and young-adult novels all serve the most noble of purposes: to satisfy the need for information, to entertain curious imaginations, to encourage critical thinking skills, to move and inspire. Within their pages, seeds of wisdom and possibility are sown. [ Read the full article… ]
What do we tell the children?
On election night, CNN commentator Van Jones shared what many parents around the nation were feeling. “. . You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bully.’ You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bigot.’ You tell your kids, ‘Do your homework and be prepared.’ And then you have this outcome. And you have people putting children to [ Read the full article… ]
Throwback Thursday: Shadra Strickland
We’ve highlighted many illustrators during our 28 Days Later campaign, and Shadra Strickland‘s interview has always been a personal favorite. Since our interview in 2009, Ms. Strickland went on to illustrate many more books, including White Water (Candlewick Press, 2011); Please, Louise (Simon & Schuster, 2014); and Sunday Shopping (Lee & Low Books, 2014). A forthcoming book, Loving [ Read the full article… ]
Throwback Thursday: Walter Dean Myers
Very recently, a nephew came to live with me. He’s quiet, stays in his room, and basically comes downstairs to eat and hang out in the backyard. Most of the time, his earbuds are in, and therefore I believed he didn’t want to have a face-to-face conversation. One day, he was sitting at the counter [ Read the full article… ]
Countdown to our Tenth Campaign
Happy Halloween! At The Brown Bookshelf, we have another reason to feel festive. February will kick off the 10th campaign of 28 Days Later, our annual Black History Month celebration of under-the-radar and vanguard black children’s book creators. To mark that milestone, we’re starting throwback Thursdays this week where we share a profile from our archive of [ Read the full article… ]
You Can Fly: Guest Post by Jeffery Weatherford
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen follows the training, trials and triumphs of the U.S. military’s first African American pilots. Set during World War II, the book pairs my scratchboard illustrations with poems by my mother, award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford. The title is our first collaboration and my publication debut. This year marks the [ Read the full article… ]
Preserving Langston’s Legacy
It’s always a pleasure to feature award-winning author Renée Watson. Her powerful books include This Side of Home, Harlem’s Little Blackbird, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, What Momma Left Me and the forthcoming Piecing Me Together. Today, we’re honored to share another side of her – visionary and advocate. Renée’s dream is to lease and renovate [ Read the full article… ]