In a few days, summer will officially be here. Time for vacations, reunions, camps, fun with cousins and friends. But don’t forget to encourage the kids in your life to read. First Book created this eye-opening graphic that shows the effects of the summer slide, the loss of reading skills that can happen when kids don’t read during the summer break [ Read the full article… ]

THE LAURA LINE is a new middle grade novel written by BBS contributor, Crystal Allen. It’s funny (ding!), affecting (ding, ding!), and full of heart (ding, ding, ding!) Yes—you do have to read the story to be up on the “ding”. With themes of body image and self-acceptance, it’s a timely tale that also contains [ Read the full article… ]

This year, the Harlem Book Fair celebrates its 15th anniversary. A new award – QBR Wheatley Book Awards – will debut there too. In past years, the Phillis Wheatley Award was given as an honor to authors like Maya Angelou, Gordon Parks and Terry McMillan for their body of work. Categories for the new award [ Read the full article… ]

The annual celebration of the children’s books, Children’s Book Week is here. Sponsored by the Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader, includes events across the U.S., downloadable resources for kids and educators, and a Gala honoring the year’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Award winners. This year, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature [ Read the full article… ]

Beloved children’s author Fredrick L. McKissack died on Sunday, April 28, at the age of 73. With his wife and longtime writing partner Patricia, McKissack was the author of more than 100 books for children, including the award-winning DAYS OF JUBILEE (Coretta Scott King Honor, 2003), BLACK HANDS, WHITE SAILS: The Story of African-American Whalers [ Read the full article… ]

Given the release of “42,” the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, we feature a couple of books about the legendary star and others. Jackie Robinson: American Hero, written by Sharon Robinson (Scholastic, 2013; ages 7 and up). In this comprehensive biography, Sharon Robinson introduces a new generation of readers [ Read the full article… ]

Today is a special day at BBS. Team member Crystal Allen’s latest novel, The Laura Line (Balzer & Bray) made its debut. We’re so proud of Crystal and excited about her new book. Don’t you just love the cover? Check out the awesome book trailer here . Crystal’s first middle-grade novel, How Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a [ Read the full article… ]

Didn’t We Have Fun! Written by Hilda Robinson and Jeff Kunkel Featuring paintings by Hilda Robinson Published by Crickhollow Books First off, I enjoyed everything about this book — its poetic prose, its vibrant art, its aura of a down-home African American culture gone by. The book captured it all so perfectly. Didn’t We Have [ Read the full article… ]