Stereotypes. Caricatures. That’s the face of black men children see in the media far too often. That’s if they see them at all. In 1953, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man won the National Book Award. But in many ways, even with our nation being led by an African-American president, recurrent positive images of black men are still missing from literature [ Read the full article… ]
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Putting Books in Children’s Hands
In just a few days, the African American Children’s Book Fair will celebrate its 21st anniversary. Founded by literary publicist and advocate Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, the important festival has grown from a small event at a local department store in Philadelphia to one of the oldest and largest African-American children’s book fairs in the country. Each [ Read the full article… ]
Happy dancing at the Brown Bookshelf, ALA 2013 Coretta Scott King Award winners
Yesterday The American Library Association announced its 2013 book award winners, which left us at the Brown Bookshelf happy dancing all over the place. Ellen’s Broom, written by Kelly Starling Lyons, one of the Brown Bookshelf’s founding members, received a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor. Daniel Minter, featured next month during our 2013 28 Days Later campaign, [ Read the full article… ]
Shining the Spotlight: 2013 Honorees
Today, we are proud to announce the honorees for our sixth annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Month celebration of emerging and established children’s book creators of color. As is tradition, a stand-out author or illustrator will be saluted each day during February. “This is my second year working with the 28 Days [ Read the full article… ]
Book Report: Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad
Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad Author-Illustrator Henry Cole Scholastic Press, 2012 First of all, my reader, please don’t take anything in this book report as negative. I love this book! The marketing folks at Scholastic mailed it to me, I’m supposing, because they consider it a diversity book. And we are a diversity [ Read the full article… ]
Kelly Starling Lyons and Don Tate celebrate the publication of Hope’s Gift
Today Brown Bookshelf members Kelly Starling Lyons and Don Tate celebrate the publication of their new book, Hope’s Gift (Putnam Juvenile, December 27, 2012). Kelly writes a poignant story that celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Don Tate illustrates this significant moment in American history. Kirkus describes: “A warm story about the love of [ Read the full article… ]
Honoring The Nominees
Congratulations to those authors and illustrators that received a nomination for the 2013 NAACP Image Awards. It’s no surprise that many are previous 28 Days Later spotlights. The Brown Bookshelf prides itself on being among the first to honor these, in some cases unsung, creative artists. Literary Work – Children Fifty Cents and a Dream [ Read the full article… ]
A look at 2012 Best-Of lists. Considering, celebrating diversity
[Updated Dec. 28, 2012] It’s Best-of season! It’s that time of year when review journals, newspapers, and book lovers of all kinds choose the best children’s books in a given year. I love it. Reminds me of Academy Award season in the movie business. Everyone talks about the best movie, actor/actress, director. And then everyone rushes [ Read the full article… ]