Category: General

Mmmm…it’s awards time. Know how I know? Because debating the merits of kiddie lit’s most prestigious honors has started. I always peek my head up during awards season, if only to hear the buzz. And the recent article in the Washington Post, Plot Twist- The Newbery May Dampen Kids’ Reading, is particularly interesting to me. [ Read the full article… ]

Yes, I’m a grown man. But I dig children’s literature, especially picture books. I admire creators of these wonderful works of art — authors and artists. So you can imagine the excitement I felt when I discovered a new book on the horizon, illustrated by an artist I admire, Kadir Nelson, about the President-elect whom [ Read the full article… ]

A recent article in Publisher’s Weekly emphatically backs what The Brown Bookshelf has long endorsed — importance of increasing the diversity of books out there for young African American teen readers. The article points to signs that this is happening. One interesting point – editor Stacey Barney (who actually acquired So Not The Drama for [ Read the full article… ]

With respect to teen readers, there’s always a fine line. They certainly don’t want to be told what to read and yet, are right on the cusp of realizing that aduls can and do provide pretty decent recommendations. A recent SLJ article provides a peek into what teen readers are into, at the moment, from [ Read the full article… ]

There’s an old advertising stat that goes something like this: a person must be exposed to a message or image at least nine times before they truly register it. Maybe it’s eight times, maybe it’s ten – the point is, a person must be exposed to a message over and over before they absorb it. [ Read the full article… ]

Too often we complain about the shortage of books by and about African Americans. But folks, there’s much to celebrate, too! Here are a few of the wonderful books I’ve read recently: Joseph (McElderry Books) by Shelia P. Moses (ages 12 and up) Life is hard for 15-year-old Joseph Flood. His mother is no good. [ Read the full article… ]

According to Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, DC, has opened a new section for older teens.  “We needed a separate physical space with more sophisticated titles for our high school readers,” says bookseller Heidi Powell, who has been actively working on creating a special section for older teens, [ Read the full article… ]

I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and saw this headline on Yahoo: Writer’s Welcome A Literary President- Elect.  What? Writers getting some sort of national mention? Are we in some sort of bizarro world now that the elections are over? We very well may be. Writing is the ugly step child of the [ Read the full article… ]