Last week, Kelly Starling Lyons and I took the Brown Bookshelf on the road. We presented a program at the International Reading Association conference, Windows to the Past: Using Nonfiction and Historical Fiction Picture Books to Teach Black History. It was a bit hit. Kelly discussed her books and what inspires her stories. And she offered great tips for using picture [ Read the full article… ]
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Free Kindle Copy: Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria
Author and quilter Kyra E. Hicks has great news to share: She sold out of copies of her wonderful picture book, Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria. Yay! Go Kyra! It’s now an ebook available on Kindle. Through tomorrow (April 29), Kyra is offering a free Kindle copy of her book. Here’s the link: http://amzn.to/IXL9wv [ Read the full article… ]
Jes’ A Hit
We’re peacock proud around BBS. Team member and award-winning illustrator Don Tate celebrated the book birthday for his fantastic authorial debut last week: It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw (Lee & Low). Already, the book, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, has won big praise from industry journals. Kirkus and Booklist gave it starred reviews. It’s [ Read the full article… ]
Easter Treasures
I’m often the go-to person for friends looking for multicultural children’s book recommendations. But when a buddy asked me recently for suggestions of Easter-themed books that feature African-American characters, I was stumped. Thankfully, help was just a click away. Through online searches and suggestions from my FaceBook friend, Kathleen T. Horning of the Cooperative Children’s Book [ Read the full article… ]
A Conversation with Shawn Goodman, author of SOMETHING LIKE HOPE
After reading Something Like Hope, it took several days before I could stop thinking about the characters and get my head around the journey I’d taken through each chapter. This is an amazing story and I am thrilled that Shawn Goodman agreed to chat about his young adult novel, Something Like Hope. 1. What is [ Read the full article… ]
Twenty Years Strong
On Saturday, February 4, Philadelphia’s African American Children’s Book Fair turns 20. It’s a milestone that means a lot to founder Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati. “Twenty years of putting on this book fair has reinforced my belief that children will read if you put good books in front of them,” she said. “They will read if they [ Read the full article… ]
Party for Five
One may be the loneliest number, but five is a party. We’re proud to announce our twenty-four authors and four illustrators spotlights marking our fifth annual 28 Days Later initiative, a month-long celebration of veteran and emerging children’s authors of color. There was a time when we considered doing something BIG to mark the fifth [ Read the full article… ]