So many books. So little time. I’m overwhelmed with the sheer number of books available. I used to feel ignorant when someone would wax on about an author I hadn’t heard of, because they’d speak of them as if everyone should know the person. I no longer feel that way. There are lots of books [ Read the full article… ]
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Book report: Before John Was a Jazz Giant
Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane Written by Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by Sean Qualls Published by Henry Holt and Company, April 2008 Life can be a rat race, I know. We get so busy we never take the time to stop and listen, taking a chance on missing life’s [ Read the full article… ]
28 & Beyond: Almost to Freedom
Children’s librarian and author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson was exploring an exhibit of historic rag dolls at New Mexico’s International Museum of Folk Art when inspiration struck. As she perused the collection, which included a few dolls from Underground Railroad hideouts, she is quoted as thinking: “If only these dolls could talk.” So began Nelson’s journey [ Read the full article… ]
Speak Up…Who’s Your Favorite?
I’m used to my own blog being quiet. People lurk and like it that way. I never give them a hard time about it. But Don and I have always wished the comments here at the BBS reflected the number of folks actually visiting. Still, I don’t want to scare anyone away by making them [ Read the full article… ]
Guest blogger Kyra Hicks: Black Kid’s Lit Authors – Down 12% in 2007
The number of African American Children’s Book authors published in 2007 has declined nearly 12% since 2006! The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison has tracked children’s books by and about people of color in the US since 1994. Its study of African American children’s book authors goes back further [ Read the full article… ]
Need a MAPP of black history?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/fkmt02VhKdA&hl=en] I just discovered an amazing website, an invaluable education tool: Maaping the African American Past (MAAP). This valuable resource was produced by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) in partnership with Columbia University’s Teachers College and Creative Curriculum Initiatives (CCI), to enhance the appreciation and study of significant sites and [ Read the full article… ]
Books Across America
In the fifth grade, I vaguely remember coming home one Sunday afternoon from church and seeing people standing at the intersection of Northfield Rd. and Miles Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio holding hands. That human chain was known as Hands Across America which was an event created to fight hunger and homelessness. In elementary school, we [ Read the full article… ]
28 & Beyond: The Hard-Times Jar
Inspired by the author’s childhood, this tale of a girl longing for a book to call her own warms hearts with its vivid language and beautiful acrylic portraits. In The Hard-Times Jar (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003), written by Ethel Footman Smothers and illustrated by John Holyfield, Emma, the daughter of migrant farm workers, makes up stories and records them on brown paper-bag pages. [ Read the full article… ]