Heads Up is a reposting of AACBWI’s announcement of book releases that may picque the interest of young African American readers. As a Brown Bookshelf partner, The African American Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators society is dedicated to spreading the word about these and other books that are of special interest to multi-cultural audiences.

From Board Books to Young Adult fiction, Heads Up serves as a guide of what to look for in stores or what to ask for at the library.

THE HOPE CHEST (Random House) by Karen Schwabach (Ages 9-12)

Violet’s older sister Chloe didn’t get married. She bought a car instead. And then she drove that car to New York City and never came home again. Violet’s parents said Chloe had turned into the Wrong Sort of Person, but Violet knew better. Now she’s determined to find her sister, and she’ll go all the way to New York City to do it. The only problem is that Chloe’s not in New York anymore. So Violet must journey even further to Tennessee , where Chloe is fighting for the vote for women. Nashville is a hotbed of political intrigue. Suffs and Antis are doing anything and everything to sway legislators to their side: bribing them, pleading with them, and even kidnapping them. Violet is hanging out with suffragists, socialists, and colored people. But if she’s becoming the Wrong Sort of Person, why does it feel just right?

NIKKI AND DEJA by Karen English – Clarion Books (Ages 4-8)

Can Nikki and Deja’s friendship survive the drill team club and the new girl? Meet Nikki and Deja, who live next door to each other and are best friends. They do everything together-watch Saturday morning cartoons, play jacks, jump double Dutch at recess, and help each other with their homework for Ms. Shelby’s third-grade class. But when an arrogant new girl arrives and Nikki and Deja form a club that would exclude her, the results are not what they expect. This warm, easy-to-read chapter book from an award-winning author captures all the joys and complexities of elementary school life-particularly friendships and cliques-with finesse and humor.

NEW BOY by Julian Houston – Paperback version (Young Adult)

In this compelling debut novel, a sixteen year-old African American boy discovers the world-and himself-when he integrates an all-white boarding school in the 1950s.

 MISSY VIOLET AND ME by Barbara Hathaway – Houghton Mifflin paperback version (Ages 9-12)

The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award was given to this moving story of a young girl’s apprenticeship to a midwife. The summer that Viney is eleven years old is extraordinary. It takes her out of school and puts her under the wing of Missy Violet, a well-loved midwife whose wise and warm ways help teach Viney about the business of catchin’ babies. At turns scary, funny, and exhilarating, the rhythm of Viney’s rural life in the South quickens as she embraces her apprenticeship and finds her own special place as Missy Violet’s “best helper girl.”

THE ROAD TO PARIS by Nikki Grimes – Puffin paperback version (Ages 9-12)

Paris has just moved in with the Lincoln family, and she isnt thrilled to be in yet another foster home. She has a tough time trusting people, and she misses her brother, whos been sent to a boys home. Over time, the Lincolns grow on Paris . But no matter how hard she tries to fit in, she cant ignore the feeling that she never will, especially in a town thats mostly white while she is half black. It isnt long before Paris has a big decision to make about where she truly belongs.

UP CLOSE: OPRAH WINFREY by Ilene Cooper – Puffin (Young Adult)

Oprah Winfrey has been called the Queen of All Media for good reasonduring her more than thirty-year career, she has left an indelible mark on radio, television, film, theater, magazines, and books. One of the most influential people today, Oprah is also a committed humanitarian.

Heads Up is a reposting of AACBWI’s announcement of book releases that may peak the interest of young African American readers. As a Brown Bookshelf partner, The African American Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators society is dedicated to spreading the word about these and other books that are of special interest to multi-cultural audiences.

From Board Books to Young Adult fiction, Heads Up serves as a guide of what to look for in stores or what to ask for at the library.

In keeping with the “theme” of historical books leading to Black History Month, this week’s releases are all biographical.

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum by Robert A. Parker (Schwartz & Wade) – Ages 4-8

Regardless of whether they’ve heard of jazz or Art Tatum, young readers will appreciate how Parker uses simple, lyrical storytelling and colorful and energetic ink-and-wash illustrations to show the world as young Art Tatum might have seen it.

Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly blind, but his passion for the piano and his acute memory for any sound that he heard drove him to become a virtuoso who was revered by both classical and jazz pianists alike.

Muhammad Ali: Champion of the World by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Francois Roca (Schwartz & Wade) – Ages 4-8

In the history of legendary boxers, there was Joe Louis and Sonny Liston . . . and then, “the heavens opened up, and there appeared a great man descending on a cloud, jump-roping into the Kingdom of Boxing . And he was called Cassius Clay.”

Clay let everyone know that he was the greatest boxer in the world. He converted to the Nation of Islam, refused to be drafted into a war in which he didn’t believe, and boxed his way back to the top after being stripped of his title. The man that came to be known as Muhammad Ali was heard in a voice no one will ever forget.

Mandela: The Rebel Who Led His Nation to Freedom by Ann Kramer (National Geographic Children’s Books) – Ages 9-12

Nelson Mandela comes to life in this portrait of a diplomatic man whose commitment to freedom gained him both the Nobel Peace Prize and Time’s Man of the Year honor. The son of a Thembu chief in South Africa , Mandela began his life-long campaign against white colonial rule while a college student.

Kramer’s eloquent, yet approachable text describes the leader’s dedication to nonviolence, his role in the African National Congress and his arrest in 1962 for sabotage and conspiracy. During his 27 years in prison, Mandela continued his fight for a democratic and free society, and ultimately was released and elected president of South Africa .

Heads Up is a reposting of AACBWI’s announcement of book releases that may picque the interest of young African American readers.

As a Brown Bookshelf partner, The African American Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators society is dedicated to spreading the word about these and other books that are of special interest to multi-cultural audiences.

From Board Books to Young Adult fiction, Heads Up serves as a guide of what to look for in stores or what to ask for at the library.

 Taking a peek at this column’s latest entries, I get the sense that with Black History Month around the corner, historical books are the flavor of the day.

FREEDOM ON THE MENU by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by
Jerome Lagarrigue (Puffin) Picture Book/Paperback (ages 4-8)

There were signs all throughout town telling eight-year-old Connie where she could and could not go. But when Connie sees four young men take a stand for equal rights at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, she realizes that things may soon change.
This event sparks a movement throughout her town and region. And while Connie is too young to march or give a speech, she helps her brother and sister make signs for the cause. Changes are coming to Connie’s town, but Connie just wants to sit at the lunch counter and eat a banana split like everyone else.

CIRCLE UNBROKEN by Margot Theis Raven (Square Fish) Picture Book (ages
4-8)

As she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her old-timey grandfather’s village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain.

Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children.

FRANCIE by Karen English (Square Fish) – Middle Grade (ages 9-12)

Francie is happiest up on her hill, bare feet pushed into the cool grass, eating a Scooter Pie, reading a Nancy Drew mystery, and–best of all–waving at “her” train as it heads up the tracks to Birmingham. Life isn’t easy being a quiet, bright, “colored” eighth-grader growing up in the ’30s in Noble, Alabama. The fact that Francie can be a little willful doesn’t always help.

Her train promises escape, the chance to travel to “places of possibility.” And anywhere seems better than Noble, with its “pickaninny” racism and back-breaking routine, where she slaves away with her mother cooking and cleaning for white folks in town (when she isn’t studying hard at Booker T. Washington, her clapboard country school, that is).

Francie dreams of Chicago, where her father moved a year ago to work as a Pullman porter, promising to send for Francie, her little brother Prez, and their mama as soon as he could. But Daddy has yet to come through, and Noble begins to offer possibilities of its own, the most exciting being when Francie puts her reading smarts to use tutoring an unschooled 16-year-old from nearby New Carlton.

When he gets framed for attacking a white foreman, though, the courageous Francie can’t keep from trying to help, endangering herself and those she holds dear.

I, MATTHEW HENSON By Carole Boston Weatherford (Walker Books for Young
Children) – Nonfiction (ages 5-10)

Matthew Henson was not meant to lead an ordinary life. His dreams had sails. They took him from the port of Baltimore, around the world, and north to the pole. No amount of fear, cold, hunger, or injustice could keep him from tasting adventure and exploring the world.

He learned to survive in the Arctic wilderness, and he stood by Admiral Peary for
years on end, all for the sake of his goal. And finally, after decades of facing danger and defying the odds, he reached the North Pole and made history. At last, Henson had proved himself as an explorer—and as a man.

A SWEET SMELL OF ROSES by Angela Johnson (Aladdin) – Picture Book
(ages 4-8)

There’s a sweet, sweet smell in the air as two young girls sneak out of their house, down the street, and across town to where men and women are gathered, ready to march for freedom and justice. Inspired by countless children and young adults who took a stand, two Coretta Scott King honorees offer a heart-lifting glimpse of children’s roles
in the civil rights movement.