What’s New with The Brown Bookshelf

The Brown Bookshelf presented at the Texas Library Association conference. Thank you to the Black Caucus of TLA who sponsored our session, Overlooked Books who hosted our signing and amazing librarians like the ones from Houston in the picture who showed us lots of love. Thank you to everyone who supports the work we do. Completing our [ Read the full article… ]

The Brown Bookshelf at TLA

We’ve taken our 10th anniversary celebration on the road. Please join us today at 2:45 p.m. for our Texas Library Association session, Celebrating Diversity: The Brown Bookshelf Salutes Great Books for Kids (Room 303ABC, Ballroom level). The presenters are Gwendolyn Hooks and Kelly Starling Lyons. Here are the session hand-outs which include book lists and resources: BBS Booklist TLA TLA [ Read the full article… ]

Carla Sarratt: Looking Back, Looking Forward

In honor of our 10th anniversary, we are proud to share this reflection by Carla Sarratt, one of our founding members.  Carla, an invaluable member of our team, worked diligently to help The Brown Bookshelf connect with teachers, librarians and kids. Today, she has a special view of two sides of the publishing world – children’s book creator and [ Read the full article… ]

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… ]

Guest post: Nadia Hohn’s selfie interview on “Malaika’s Costume”

When author/illustrator Don Tate invited me to write a blogpost about Malaika’s Costume, I thought.  Of course.  Why not?  Why don’t I take this opportunity to ask all of the questions, the sorts of questions I get asked all the time, the sorts of questions I wished I was asked about this book?  Ladies and gentleman.  [ Read the full article… ]

Day 7: Ekua Holmes

Before making her debut as a children’s book illustrator, Ekua Holmes was already an accomplished and award-winning fine artist. She was the first African American woman to be appointed a commissioner on the Boston Arts Commission. She was the recipient of a 2013 Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation for her contributions to the Boston arts community. In addition, she was [ Read the full article… ]