A Declaration in Support of Children

Children’s literature may be the most influential literary genre of all. Picture books, chapter books, middle-grade and young-adult novels all serve the most noble of purposes: to satisfy the need for information, to entertain curious imaginations, to encourage critical thinking skills, to move and inspire. Within their pages, seeds of wisdom and possibility are sown. [ Read the full article… ]

Throwback Thursday: Shadra Strickland

We’ve highlighted many illustrators during our 28 Days Later campaign, and Shadra Strickland‘s interview has always been a personal favorite. Since our interview in  2009, Ms. Strickland went on to illustrate many more books, including White Water (Candlewick Press, 2011); Please, Louise (Simon & Schuster, 2014); and Sunday Shopping (Lee & Low Books, 2014). A forthcoming book, Loving [ Read the full article… ]

Throwback Thursday: Walter Dean Myers

Very recently, a nephew came to live with me.  He’s quiet, stays in his room, and basically comes downstairs to eat and hang out in the backyard.  Most of the time, his earbuds are in, and therefore I believed he didn’t want to have a face-to-face conversation.  One day, he was sitting at the counter [ Read the full article… ]

Countdown to our Tenth Campaign

Happy Halloween! At The Brown Bookshelf, we have another reason to feel festive. February will kick off the 10th campaign of 28 Days Later, our annual Black History Month celebration of under-the-radar and vanguard black children’s book creators. To mark that milestone, we’re starting throwback Thursdays this week where we share a profile from our archive of [ Read the full article… ]