We know you don’t want to admit it, but summer is almost over. *heavy sigh* Let’s have one more book party before fall swoops in. Help us celebrate BBS’s Paula Chase and her MG debut, So Done. They had always been best friends. Until that summer… Jamila Phillips and Tai Johnson have been inseparable since they were toddlers. [ Read the full article… ]
Category: Book Releases


Book Party – Minecraft: The Crash
Any time is a good time for a book party. Add gaming into it and you’re about to add joy to a young reader’s life when you join us in celebrating the latest from BBS’s own Tracey Baptiste. When Bianca Marshall, an avid Minecraft enthusiast wakes in the hospital, almost paralyzed by injuries from a car [ Read the full article… ]

Black Kids on Covers
This is a wonderful time in children’s book publishing, where the faces of black girls and boys on covers is not an anomaly. When I was a kid, I almost never saw myself on the cover of a book, and certainly not ones as spectacular as those upcoming in the next few months. There was [ Read the full article… ]

Javaka Steptoe On The Sounds of a Rainbow
Javaka Steptoe is an award-winning, eclectic artist, designer, and illustrator. His debut work, In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers, earned him the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature Work at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, and countless other honors. More accolades followed for his work on [ Read the full article… ]

Blog Tour: Dork Diaries
On June 2, 2009, author Rachel Renee Russell released her debut middle grade book Dork Diaries. Never fear, being a dork is cool these days and Nikki Maxwell, the dorky protagonist, embraces her dork status. To welcome Nikki and Rachel to The Brown Bookshelf family, I sat down with the two of them recently to [ Read the full article… ]

What’s New in YA Releases II?
It’s that time again, time to celebrate more young adult books published this year. Since May, several new titles have come out that are just waiting for you to pick up and read. Some of our favorite authors are back with their second or third book, inviting us to resume the next saga in their [ Read the full article… ]

Heads Up Vol IV
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 [ Read the full article… ]

Head’s Up Vol III
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 [ Read the full article… ]