Donavan’s Double Trouble Written by Monalisa DeGross Illustrated by Amy Bates Published by HarperCollins, 2008 Donavan’s friends say he has a math block. They say no matter what he does or how hard he tries, he won’t understand until he has some sort of a math breakthrough. Donavan knows his friends are right, but he [ Read the full article… ]
Eleanora E. Tate’s eyes glimmer with the twinkle of a teacher. She passes along wisdom with a heap of humor and grace. That’s a quality of her acclaimed stories too. Author of 11 books, Tate celebrates neighborhoods, families and communities with plots that move and challenge and characters who endure long after her stories end. [ Read the full article… ]
If you’re a teacher, author, librarian, bookstore employee, chances are that you’ve been asked, “How do I get my kids or students to read more?” or “How do I get my kids or students to like reading?” As a teacher, I was asked some variation of those questions. Since becoming an author, I’ve been asked [ Read the full article… ]
Happy 2024, Friends! We were on hiatus most of last year. Happy to be back celebrating outstanding Black children’s book creators. This time, we’re doing something new. We’re collaborating with our Amplify Black Stories fellows to salute their work and give you an update on the members of The Brown Bookshelf team. Not familiar with Amplify [ Read the full article… ]
Happy 2024, Friends! We were on hiatus most of last year. Happy to be back celebrating outstanding Black children’s book creators. This time, we’re doing something new. We’re collaborating with our Amplify Black Stories fellows to salute their work and give you an update on the members of The Brown Bookshelf team. Not familiar with Amplify [ Read the full article… ]
If you know me, you know how I feel about Vanessa Brantley Newton. If you don’t know, read this. In summary, she is my sister and she is brilliant. She is a generous friend of The Brown Bookshelf, and has gifted us permission to use her gorgeous illustrations on more than one occasion. She is [ Read the full article… ]
Daniel Minter’s art is bold, brilliant, and singular. Every book, every sculpture, every painting, every postage stamp…all are testaments to the compelling nature of his creative genius. In 2020, Minter was awarded a Caldecott Honor Award for Going Down Home With Daddy, his second award-winning collaboration with BBS member, Kelly Starling Lyons. Their first was [ Read the full article… ]
Two years ago on social networks, librarian Elizabeth Bird suggested that someone write a biography on Jerry Lawson—the self-taught engineer known as the “father of modern video gaming.” Back in the 70s, Lawson successfully lead the team of engineers who developed the first interchangeable video game cartridge (recently featured on Google). I hadn’t heard of [ Read the full article… ]
