#coretta scott king book awards

[uwmspeccoll]

A Jerry Pickney Saturday

Jerry Pinkney (1939-2021) was a multi-award-winning American illustrator and children’s book author. His numerous awards include a Caldecott Medal (2010); five Caldecott Honor Book awards; five Coretta Scott King Book Awards (the most for any illustrator); five Coretta Scott King Honor Awards; the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award (2016); the 2016 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award; four Gold medals, four Silver medals, and the 2016 Original Art Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators; and he was nominated twice for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, considered the Nobel Prize for children's literature, among many other awards and recognitions.

The images shown here are Pickney’s pencil, color pencil, and watercolor illustrations for children’s book author Alan Schroeder’s 1996 fictional biography, Minty, A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, published in New York by Dial Books for Young Readers. This book won Pickney the 1997 Coretta Scott King Book Award for Illustrator, and the book was a Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice for 1996.

Schroeder writes that “While Minty is a fictional account of Harriet Tubman’s childhood, and some scenes have been invented for narrative purposes, the basic facts are true.” Of illustrating this book, Pinkney writes:

The challenge that Minty initially posed for me came from not having a clear picture of Harriet Tubman’s early childhood. However, I was able to imagine the spirited eight-year-old Minty, using Alan Schroeder’s strong text and Harriet Tubman’s biography, The Moses of Her People, as springboards. The National Park Service was also helpful . . . as was the Banneker-Douglas Museum in Maryland, where extensive research uncovered the style of plantations around Maryland during Minty’s childhood and authentic details regarding backgrounds, dress, food, and living conditions of the enslaved as well as the slave owners. My interest was to give some sense of Minty’s noble spirit and open a window to understanding the day-to-day, sunup to sundown life of the slave, by individualizing the hardships in overwhelming circumstances.

In 1978 I was privileged to create the first Harriet Tubman commemorative stamp for the U.S. Postal Service. This book, then, brings me full circle with Harriet’s life and courage.

View another post with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney.

View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection.

View more Black History Month posts.

[desdasiwrites]

– Junauda Petrus, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

[blackownersseekingsuccess]

Remembering Bayard Rustin: The Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement

written by Levi Wise Kenneth Catoe Jr.

August 1, 2024 - Growing up as a Black boy in Paterson, NJ, and attending Roman and Irish Catholic Parochial schools, Black history was not very familiar to me. I grew up in a religious Southern Baptist family and participated in the church choir. In this context, Martin Luther King, Jr., was all that I knew about Black history until I became a teenage Madonna fanatic. Ironically, Madonna made me aware of Black activists and radicals such as Nina Simone, Jean-Michel Basquiat, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin. Bayard Rustin was an African American activist who believed in civil disobedience. Rustin felt that Black people should deliberately break unjust laws but do it non-violently to bring about change and this would play a key role in the Civil Rights movement. He also advocated for LGBTQ rights. Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York. It’s interesting to note that at the time CCNY was an all-male college once regarded as ‘Jewish Harvard’ which did not accept Black men—Rustin was an unusual exception. While Rustin was at CCNY he became involved in efforts to defend and free the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men in Alabama who were accused of raping two white women. Activism for Rustin was something that came naturally. He later became a mentor to Martin Luther King.

Rustin is one of my all-time idols. I have been enamored of him since I learned about him, so I was excited to attend an event dedicated to his life and legacy at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “Between the Lines: Bayard Rustin, A Legacy of Protest and Politics.” The event was a conversation between Michael G. Long and Jafari Allen, who edited the book of the same name. Their exchange sparked many revelations and I left the event more aware than when I entered. I felt so much pity for the life that Rustin had to live, including the attack on his character that was rallied against him by other Black people and the distance that Martin Luther King placed between himself and Rustin out of fear of people assuming that he was also gay. I also learned that it was Coretta Scott King who introduced King to Rustin. Scott-King met Rustin during her college years as a fellow activist who practiced civil disobedience. She would ultimately introduce her husband King to civil disobedience tactics. Rustin recalled that his first time meeting King he was strapped with a handgun and that he never traveled without his gun. It was Rustin who told King that if he represented civil disobedience he would have to be willing to put away his firearm, which eventually he did. Nevertheless, this raises the question, who was King really? The “I Have A Dream” pacifist or the “Beyond Vietnam” radical? We will never truly know.

All in all what I did learn was that according to Rustin, King had no idea how to organize an event. Instead, it was Rustin who developed the blueprint for King’s early Civil Rights movement, at least until the day that King removed Rustin from his inner circle.

Nevertheless, Rustin returned to organize the March on Washington, despite everything leveled against him by Adam Clayton Powel and Roy Wilkins. Someone noted during the discussion that ���it’s funny how karma works given the fact that nobody remembers Wilkins's legacy in comparison to the sudden interest in Rustin.'' If I remember correctly, the comment was made by the moderator, NYU professor Dr. Jarafi Allen, based on the fact that the venue was standing room only, or that the Hollywood lens is now fixated on Rustin’s story, with an Academy Award-nominated movie based upon his life currently in theaters. Wilkins has not received the same interest from Hollywood, perhaps indicating that he is less marketable in the mainstream. Meanwhile, Rustin’s role as an activist for the LGTBQ community is also important for newer generations. Until recently, this legacy and all that he accomplished was invisible, but he has since become a symbol of the “others” and most notably the “forgotten others”. While in his lifetime he was shunned, rallied against, and betrayed by those that he benefitted, history has allowed his legacy the final word.

[jstor]

Effie Lee Morris stands as a towering figure in the realm of children's literature and library services, leaving an indelible mark through her visionary leadership and tireless advocacy. Born into an era marked by racial segregation and systemic barriers, Morris defied the odds, rising to become a beacon of change and progress. Her journey began as a public librarian in Cleveland and later in the Bronx, where she cultivated a deep appreciation for the transformative power of literature and education.

In 1971, Effie Lee Morris shattered barriers as the first African-American president of the Public Library Association, a milestone that underscored her commitment to equity and inclusion in library spaces. Her groundbreaking work extended beyond administrative roles; Morris played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of children's literature by spearheading the establishment of the Coretta Scott King Award. By crafting the original selection criteria in 1970, she laid the foundation for recognizing and celebrating African-American authors and illustrators, ensuring their voices resonated prominently in the literary world.

Morris's impact reverberated within the walls of the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), where she assumed the role of the first coordinator of children's services. During her tenure, she revolutionized children's literature by establishing a research collection of out-of-print books, meticulously documenting the evolving portrayals of ethnic and culturally diverse groups. This collection, later renamed the Effie Lee Morris Historical and Research Collection in her honor, served as a testament to her unwavering dedication to preserving diverse narratives and fostering cultural understanding.

Beyond her professional achievements, Morris's advocacy extended into the realm of social justice and community engagement. She founded the San Francisco chapter of the Women's National Book Association and actively participated in the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table, championing causes aimed at combating racism, inequality, and poverty. Her contributions were met with widespread recognition, as evidenced by numerous accolades, including the Silver Spur Award and the Grolier Foundation Award, affirming her status as a trailblazer in the literary landscape.

Effie Lee Morris's legacy transcends generations, inspiring future leaders and storytellers to uphold the values of diversity, inclusion, and equity in children's literature and library services. Her visionary spirit lives on in the countless lives touched by her work, serving as a timeless reminder of the transformative power of literature in bridging cultures, fostering empathy, and igniting change.

Read more about Effie Lee Morris here.

[itmeblog]

Yup I'm still reading it

There are so many lines here that if you replace mage or king's mage with 'Black person' you'd fucking lose your shit. And now it's like "We're oath bound and I love these people and it'll be this way forever <3" but one of these kids was oath bound when he was seven to "stop the evil in his blood and combat it with good of the order" and so he "didn't revert to his demon instincts" (these are not exactly word for word but you get it) and his mother was released when she "behaved" so she could have a child (mage boy) and put away when she began to "corrupt" and there's no way this girl ain't putting two and two together, right?! Like, it's in your face. Like if it was any other person you'd be...that's a fuckin' slave.

But she's still dating Mr. Active Slave Owner, in fact, she just bound herself to him??? For life?!?!

GIRL STAND UP?! NO MAN IS THAT HOT!?!

And then there are just...questionable lines.

Like, (and this is word for word): "Issac murmurs, holding his hands in front of him like a polite servant, even though the power and fierce intelligence in his eyes suggest he's anything but." LIKE excuse me?!?

What...what are servants supposed to...like I get it but also please if you're describing that all the Black and Brown people at this racist event are the help and servers and this white man comes up and this is how you differentiate him DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?!

Like this has to be intentional...right?

I've been reading Legendborn, I'm not done yet Spoilers

The more I read about the mage boy and this (Black, this is important the main character is Black and this book goes deep into slavery and the systemic echoes of it okay? okay) girl's (white) boyfriend and I'm sitting here like

...I know he didn't choose this bond with this little mage boy...I know this wasn't your boyfriend's decision and the little mage boy is a prick of epic proportions but THAT IS A WHOLE ASS SLAVE.

So, yeah, he's a little pissy, but YOUR BOYFRIEND OWNS A SLAVE. ARE YOU NOT SEEING THIS?? HE'S PULLING RANK because he loves you and being protective is hot maybe?, but ONCE AGAIN HE'S PULLING RANK ON A LITTLE SLAVE BOY.

But the boy is powerful and dangerous.

HE'S BOUND TO NOT HURT YOUR BOYFRIEND BY MAGIC!! THAT'S A FUCKING CHAIN GIRL. HOW ARE YOU DATING AN ACTIVE SLAVE OWNER TT^TT

How are you going to let that man touch you?? The ick is so so so strong, I don't care how hot he is?!

He [boyfriend] wouldn't do something that would hurt you [mage boy] like that.

BITCH?! YOU. KNOW. WHAT. PEOPLE. USED. TO. DO.

YOU. KNOW. WHAT. THEY. STILL. DO?!

Why is abandoning him to his doom the moment he shows free will such a stretch for you?!

ALSO YOUR BOYFRIEND OWNS AN HONEST TO GOD SLAVE?!

Am I the only one seeing this?!

[richincolor]

New Releases for January 30, 2024

The four new releases we found this week are filled with poetry, murder, romance, and a little more murder of the fantastical variety.  

Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology edited by Amber McBride Taylor Byas, & Erica Martin HarperCollins

Starring thirty-seven poets, with contributions from acclaimed authors, including Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, and Nikki Giovanni, this breathtaking Black YA poetry anthology edited by National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin celebrates Black poetry, folklore, and culture.

Come, claim your wings.

Lift your life above the earth,

return to the land of your father’s birth.

What exactly is it to be Black in America?

Well, for some, it’s learning how to morph the hatred placed by others into love for oneself; for others, it’s unearthing the strength it takes to continue to hold one’s swagger when multitudinous factors work to make Black lives crumble. For some, it’s gathering around the kitchen table as Grandma tells the story of Anansi the spider, while for others it’s grinning from ear to ear while eating auntie’s spectacular 7Up cake.

Black experiences and traditions are complex, striking, and vast—they stretch longer than the Nile and are four times as deep—and carry more than just unimaginable pain—there is also joy.

Featuring an all-star group of thirty-seven powerful poetic voices, including such luminaries as Kwame Alexander, James Baldwin, Ibi Zoboi, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, this riveting anthology depicts the diversity of the Black experience by fostering a conversation about race, faith, heritage, and resilience between fresh poets and the literary ancestors that came before them.

Edited by Taylor Byas, Erica Martin, and Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner Amber McBride, Poemhood will simultaneously highlight the duality and nuance at the crux of so many Black experiences with poetry being the psalm constantly playing.

Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

Delacorte Press

Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.

Amir never gets an answer to his question, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch downstairs—and Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of the murder of a rich white girl? All of New Orleans agrees, the case is open and shut.

Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, it doesn’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but his half brother knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving Amir’s innocence will repair the rift that’s always existed between them.

To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths.

Just Say Yes by Goldy Moldavsky Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Jimena Ramos had no idea she was undocumented.

Now she’s seventeen, and she needs to figure out a way to stay in New York City, the only home she can remember. There’s only one possibility that will get her a green card quickly enough: Jimena is going to find an American to marry her.

She’s got one excellent candidate: Vitaly, her next-door neighbor and friend, the only person she trusts with her secret. But Vitaly’s got his own plans for the future. He’s a definite no.

So Jimena tries online dating. She decides to approach this marriage like a business transaction. She figures out a plan that just might save her and make her a citizen at last.

But of course, she can’t stop thinking about Vitaly.

These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

A teenage sorcerer’s apprentice must solve her boss’s murder in order to prove her innocence in this twisty, magic-infused murder mystery perfect for fans of Knives Out and The Inheritance Games .

Being an apprentice for one of the world’s most famous sorcerers has its challenges; Tabatha Zeng just didn’t think they would include solving crime. But when her boss, the infamous fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon, predicts his own brutal death—and worse, it comes true—Tabatha finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

The police have their sights set on her and Callum Solomon, her murdered boss’s youngest son. With suspicion swirling around them, the two decide to team up to find the real killer and clear their own names once and for all.

But solving a murder isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when the suspect list is mostly the rich, connected, and magical members of Sorcerer Solomon’s family. And Tabatha can’t quite escape the nagging voice in her head just how much can she really trust Callum Solomon?

Nothing is as it seems in this quick-witted and fantastical murder mystery.

[reasoningdaily]

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

From the New York Times best-selling author and National Book Award finalist, a biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler.

A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose.

Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight audiences 15 years after her death.

Cover art 2022 by Zharia Shinn

click the title link to Download for FREE from The BLACK TRUEBRARY

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Sherley Anne Williams

Sherley Anne Williams was born in 1944 in Bakersfield, California. Williams wrote a play, a novel, poetry, children's books, and literary criticism. Her writing captured the experiences of African-Americans, particularly Black women. Williams' first poetry collection, The Peacock Poems, was published in 1975, and was nominated for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Her 1982 poetry collection, Someone Sweet Angel Chile, was also nominated for a National Book Award. Her novel Dessa Rose garnered critical acclaim and was translated into Dutch, French, and German. In 1992, Williams published a children's book, Working Cotton, which was a Caldecott Honor Book and won the Coretta Scott King Book Award.

Sherley Anne Williams died in 1999 at the age of 54.

[lboogie1906]

Ilyasah Shabazz (July 22, 1962) is an author, community organizer, social activist, and motivational speaker, and the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

She was born in Brooklyn.

She was a student at Hackley School. She attended the State University of New York at New Paltz. She was elected an officer of the Black Student Union.

She earned an MA in Education and Human Resource Development from Fordham University.

She wrote Growing Up X, the memoir of her childhood and her personal views on her father, in 2002. It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction. A devout Muslim, she made the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj, in 2006 as her father had in 1964 and her mother did in 1965.

She wrote Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X, a children’s book about her father’s childhood. It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Children’s. She wrote a young-adult novel, X, about the same subject. The book was among the ten finalists considered for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and it won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Youth/Teens. It won honors from the Coretta Scott King Awards and the Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature and was named as a 2016 Bank Street Children’s Book Committee’s Best Book of the Year. Her middle-grade novel about her mother’s childhood, Betty Before X, was published in January 2018. It was one of the 2019 Bank Street Children’s Book Committee Best Books of the Year and received an “Outstanding Merit” recognition.

She is a trustee for the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, the Malcolm X Foundation, and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. She is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta

[mariacallous]

Children learn from the books they encounter in their homes, schools, and libraries. The lessons they take from these books shape their beliefs and the future selves they will grow into. These lessons come from many dimensions of books; one such dimension which is particularly salient to the reader is who is and is not present in each picture and passage. The presence or absence of different characters teaches children societal norms about who gets to exist in what spaces. This matters for the children themselves—shaping their beliefs about themselves and their place in the world—but may also help shape their views of what spaces others of different identities may inhabit.

The problem is that it is hard to know, systematically, how race and gender are represented in the books we use to teach our children. Parents and teachers cannot possibly read every available book before they choose which books to give or suggest to their children or students, much less librarians, superintendents, or policymakers. These actors face a dauntingly large number of choices and often turn to external sources for help. A common source many look to for such guidance is endorsement of merit by a third party, such as recognition from national awards like the Caldecott and Newbery Medals. Indeed, our analysis of book purchases, library checkouts, and internet searches shows that winning these awards leads to a substantial increase in the number of children who read them. This then raises the questions: What messages about race and gender do these specific books convey, via representation, to the children who read them? And how can we measure similar representation in the other content considered for children’s use?

Using computer vision and natural language processing to measure representation in children’s books

This is where we come in. Our solution, which we describe in a paper forthcoming in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, is to use computers—specifically tools from the computer science subfields of computer vision and natural language processing—to measure representation in children’s books. Our approach develops a series of new tools, and combines them with other existing tools, to measure various features, including race, skin tone, gender, and age, of who is represented in the images and text of curricular materials. These tools are powerful and can measure many possible features of characters. We focus on bringing together tools that can measure the representation of these features of characters in both the text and the images of the books we wish to study.

Our analysis shows that these tools can be rapidly and cost-effectively applied to a wide range of curricular materials. They allow us to quickly and cheaply measure if and how people are represented in a large number of books.

We apply these tools to over 1,000 children’s books which have been recognized by a century of children’s book awards. Our analysis focuses on two main sets of books targeted towards children 14 and under. One set receives recognition for their literary or artistic value. These are books that are recognized by the prestigious Newbery and Caldecott awards. We call this the “Mainstream” collection of books because of their influence. The second set of books are recognized for both their literary or artistic value and for how they highlight experiences of specific identity groups. These include awards such as the Coretta Scott King Award, which highlights books centering experiences of Black individuals, and the Rise Awards which recognize books that center women. We call the books in this group the “Diversity” collection.

Despite significant progress, representations of race and gender in children’s books continue to lag

We first show how race and gender have been taught to children via these books’ images and text, and how this has changed over time. Our findings reveal some enduring patterns and others that indicate change. We find that characters in the Mainstream collection are consistently depicted with lighter skin than those in the Diversity collection. You can see how the two distributions vary in this figure: the Diversity collection, outlined in blue, clearly has a darker average skin tone than the Mainstream (see Figure 1). What’s more, it also has more variance—and thus diversity—of skin tones represented than the Mainstream collection.

Figure 1. Distribution of skin colors by human skin colors in Mainstream and Diversity collections in children’s literature

Note: This figure shows the distribution of skin color tint for faces detected in books from the Mainstream and Diversity collections. The mean for each distribution is denoted with a dashed line.

Source: Author’s calculations. See paper for additional details.

In Figure 2, we show that this difference between the two collections holds true even after conditioning on the race of the person being shown.

Figure 2. Distribution of skin colors by human skin colors in Mainstream and Diversity collections in children’s literature by character’s race

Note: This figure shows the distribution of skin color tint by the predicted race of the detected faces in the Mainstream and Diversity collections.

Source: Author’s calculations. See paper for additional details.

In other results, we show that children are more likely than adults to be shown with lighter skin, despite there being no definitive biological foundation for this that we are aware of. In other words, lighter-skinned children see themselves represented more often than do darker-skinned children. This result, unlike those previously, holds for both collections. That is, even in books recognized for highlighting the experiences of Black children, darker-skinned children are less likely to see themselves represented.

Moving from skin color to race, we also find that in both collections, Black and Latino people have been underrepresented in these books, relative to their share of the U.S. population, corroborating prior work on the representation of race in smaller subsets of these collections of books. Our analysis of gender shows that, again in both collections, females are also less likely than males to be present in these books, despite equal population shares. Digging deeper, we compare how often females appear in images, as compared to in text. We find that females are consistently more likely to be visualized (seen) in images than mentioned (heard) in the text, which suggests more symbolic inclusion in pictures more than substantive inclusion in the actual story. Figure 3 below plots this result.

Figure 3. Female representation in images and text of children’s books

Note: This figure plots collection-by-decade average percentages of female representation in images (on the y-axis) and female representation in text (on the x-axis). This enables a comparison between the proportion of females represented in the images and the proportion of females represented in the text of the children’s books in our sample.

Source: Author’s calculations. See paper for additional details.

Over time, however, the patterns show signs of change. As time progresses, both collections of books include more characters with darker skin tones. Further, over the period we study, the representation of both race and gender trend closer to equality, though neither ever reach proportional representation, relative to the larger population.

Our paper then analyzes separate data on the checkouts of books in libraries and purchases of books by households to better understand what shapes who consumes different types of children’s books. We find that people tend to buy books that contain characters who share their gender and racial identities. Yet books centering many historically minoritized identities are either more scarce than other books, more expensive, or both. This suggests that greater provision of—and access to—books representing a more diverse range of identities than is currently available would fill a clear and desired need in the market. We also find that the content of books that people in a given area purchase are correlated with the political leanings of a community: in areas where progressive views are more common, people consume books with a more diverse range of identities represented than in areas where conservative views prevail.

Conclusion and implications

This research investigates who is represented; in other work, we also investigate how people are represented in children’s books. In these analyses, we show that the manner in which people are represented to children often reproduces societal norms and disparities. We see, for example, that females are more likely to be described relative to their appearance and roles in the family, while males are more likely to be described relative to their competence and roles in business. A century ago, we see a substantial gap between the sentiment, or overall positive feelings, associated with females and males—with males being shown in substantially more positive terms. Over time, however, this difference narrowed and is no longer detectable in books published today. We find similar disparities in the representation of race. For example, Black people, and Black women in particular, are more likely than white people to be mentioned in passages with more negative sentiment. While this gap, too, has lessened over time, in many contemporary stories we still find more negative sentiment associated with Black individuals than others.

Prior research has shown that the content of books can shape children’s beliefs, performance in school, and ultimately the adults they become. Our analysis shows that the representation of characters in books—and in award-winning, highly visible children’s books in particular—conveys important messages about how society values people by their race and gender. These messages trend towards equality over time, but even in many books published today, they still send the message that white people and males are the most visible and thus the most important members of society. This finding highlights some potential harms to children from recent political conflicts over critical race theory and the efforts to ban certain books that have sprung from these conflicts. It also underscores the important work that librarians, teachers, and parents play in building out school and home libraries with content showing a diversity of representation. These efforts can help ensure we teach children that all people can inhabit the many rich potential futures that await them.

[freddiekugel]

remember the Royal Diaries series, fellow millennials?

i always assumed they were written by random kid lit authors I'd never heard of (it seems like that kinda series, right? the branding is about the royals not the writers). and most of them are, one or two have won awards for some of their work.

one was written by Patricia McKissack, who won a bunch of Coretta Scott King awards and whose name I recognized immediately. she was a local author where I grew up though so maybe she's less of a big deal elsewhere (idk). [her book: Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595]

and today I learned: one of these fun, learn about a royal from their fictional diary books was written by Edwidge Danticat. well-known lit fic author Edwidge Danticat. I read some of her short stories in my high school lit class! her first three novels, and the short story collection I read in HS all came out before she wrote this royal diaries book! [which is Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 and starts with a note about how the diary format is fictionalized bc Taínos didn't have a writing system]

she's a MacArthur Genius.

i - i am shocked and delighted by this information.

[gn349]

MONDAY’S NOT COMING

[Book cover art for Monday's Not Coming]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2023, from https://www.google.com/?&bih=945&biw=1680&client=safari&hl=en

Monday Charles is missing and no one seems to know, or even care, where she is and why she hasn't shown up to school in months. This is not the case for her best friend Claudia Coleman, who is determined to find Monday. Claudia and Monday are inseparable, so when summer vacation ended and 8th grade was starting, Claudia was perplexed by Monday's absence. Time passed, and still nothing. Completely lost without her best friend, Claudia will do anything and everything possible to bring Monday home. This novel will keep you guessing, even after it's over! 5/5 stars, highly recommend for anyone who loves a great mystery novel that is hard to imagine the ending.

AWARDS:

Coretta Scott King Book Awards, 1970-2023. New Talent Winner, 2019.

Tiffany D. Jackson discusses the inspiration behind Monday’s Not Coming and the importance of the themes within her novel

[jessreadingblogk-12]

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Weatherford & Illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Genre / Category: Graphic Novel, Children’s Non-fiction / Coretta Scott King Award

Age group: 8 and up

Summary: This book is a historical retelling of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Justification: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre has won the Coretta Scott King award as well as several other awards such as being longlisted for the National Book Award.

Formant and Evaluation: I read this book in e-book format. Most picture e-books have issues with pagination such as listing a book with over 100 pages when there are only 20 such as in my review of 100 Dragons All Named Broccoli. Others lack zoom functionality which makes books with small text difficult to read. Unspeakable was digitized perfectly. The two-page spreads were all kept together on one page and, due to the digital form, were not split by the spine of the book. I will be evaluating illustrations, tone, and accuracy.

Illustrations: The illustrations of Unspeakable are unique in the way that they portray the historical nature of the narrative. The art has a type of graininess to it that give the depictions of old-timey automobiles, streets, and the fashion of the characters an added sense of realism.

Tone: The tone of Unspeakable is one of my favorite parts of this book. The story begins with “once upon a time…” which lulls the reader into a sense of childish fantasy. In fact, this book starts every other page with “once upon a time” which becomes unsettling as it describes the very real lives of people within this community. Once upon a time, the Black community of Tulsa were happy and prosperous. Halfway through the book, however, tragedy strikes and the book —given that it is written for children— does not shy away from the horrors of this historical event. It is important that children of all races can see the very real consciences of racism and this book does so in a powerful and accessible way.

Accuracy: This book has a section after the story dedicated to the history of this event. Here, the author recounts the stories of their ancestors that were killed in this tragedy. It also has pictures of the townspeople and the city in ruins after the massacre.

Citation: Weatherford, C. (2021). Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre. (F. Cooper, illus.). Carolrhoda Books.

[giftideasfromaycaramba]

One fateful night, the unthinkable happens and in a flash, Kofi’s world turns upside down. Kofi soon ends up in a fight for his life and what happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

This spellbinding novel by the author of The Crossover and Booked will take you on an unforgettable adventure that will open your eyes and break your heart.

The Door of No Return is an excellent choice for independent reading, sharing in the classroom, book groups, and homeschooling.

Available here: The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander | Ay Caramba Books

[msareviews]

Review - Standing in the Need of Prayer by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Frank Morrison

Spirituals are a form of religious music created by enslaved Black people in America. This book honors that heritage by creating new lyrics for a classic spiritual to introduce children to various events and people in Black American history and inspire them to continue the fight for racial equity and justice. I was drawn to this book as my Coretta Scott King Award winner because of my background in music, including worship music. The poetry in this book is simple but moving, reminding the reader of the violent oppression Black people in America have had to combat, and it is accompanied by gorgeous paintings that link past and present struggles seamlessly. Its overall theme, that much has been done but there is still much left to do, is inspiring and important for today’s children. This book is recommended for children in the first through fourth grade, and I think it is a wonderful tool for introducing African American history and Black American culture to young people.

The poetry in this book is based on the classic spiritual “Standing in the Need of Prayer,” and the author explains in a note at the back of the book that she followed the spiritual tradition of improvising new lyrics to the song. Her lyrics reference many events in American history, including slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and Colin Kaepernick, in mythic language. This elevates these events into inspiring milestones of progress, feeding into the inspirational tone of the book.

The illustrations are also beautifully done and create a beautiful visual timeline throughout the book. These illustrations are expressive, conveying Black people as strong in the face of racial oppression and violence. Several times in the book, a scene from the past is painted over the head of a more recent historical figure, conveying a sense of connection between current fights against oppression, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, and their roots in a long past of overcoming oppression. Particularly lovely to me, are the illustrations in the front and back covers. These are big, powerful paintings depicting children, standing strong in the face of racial injustice. The first shows an enslaved child chained but standing tall in front of a man with a snake-like whip; the violent and intimidating stances of the two men are in stark contrast to the strength and composure of the child, setting up this story of resilience and courage. The final illustration is a Black girl walking into a sunset with a protest sign. We saw this little girl in a previous illustration, so we know this is a BLM sign. Her walk away from the viewer is relaxed with one hand in her pocket and her head tilted casually. These bookending images encapsulate the book’s overall theme that there is still much to be done, but looking at the triumphs of past African American figures can provide hope and inspiration to keep fighting for equity.

The overall theme of the book is perhaps its strongest point. This book came out in 2022 during a heightened conversation about racial justice that had become widely popular after the BLM protests of 2020. In the face of a highly polarized political moment, it’s easy to fear that you’ll never reach a moment of justice, peace, and equity. I think this book gives people, especially children, a much-needed lesson from history that equity can and will prevail, we just have to keep fighting for it. It uses examples from the relatively distant to the very recent pasts to give examples of African Americans who didn’t give up their fight and made bold progress that brought us to the current moment and encourages children to then take up this mission and keep the movement going forward.

I love this book. It’s both a beautiful work of art and an inspiring experience to read. It has many uses for children – as an introduction to African American history, as an introduction to spirituals as Black culture, and as an inspirational piece for young activists. I personally found it very inspiring and will be recommending it for the staff picks display at my library.

References

NoveList. (n.d.). Standing in the need of prayer: A modern retelling of the classic spiritual. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/novp/detail?vid=2&sid=8e136d72-9e1b-4138-9fbc-ca6664275f22%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9bm92cC1saXZl#AN=11077253&db=neh.

Weatherford, C. B. (2022). Standing in the need of prayer (F. Morrison, Illus.). Crown Books for Young Readers.

[bookishandproud]

Big

by Vashti Harrison

Book Cover Picture

Genre or category

Coretta Scott King Award Winner

Target Age Group

Pre-K to 6th

Summary

As a young girl grows up, she struggles with the space that she takes up and overtime comes to embrace her uniqueness and build self-confidence.

Justification

I chose this book as it is the recipient of many different awards like Coretta Scott King, Caldecott, and Texas 2x2. It highlights the struggle that young girls can face as they grow up and their appearance begins to be judged. It offers a great representation and simple look into how to grow through that and embrace yourself and your body.

Evaluation

For this review, I will be evaluating illustrations, theme, and mood.

The illustrations for this book were beautifully soft, while not losing any detail that is needed to convey the meaning of the story. As the young girl grows up and is increasingly judged for her appearance and more and more words are used to describe her, the words are increasingly used within the illustrations to demonstrate how they have impacted her and stayed with her over time. The illustrations also really show how the girl feels as it portrays her as increasingly bigger than all of the things she is around in an exaggerated, but not too unrealistic to the feeling that the words would cause. In a pinnacle of the moment, the illustrations and the girl get bigger and bigger until they take up the whole page, and the book becomes a box that the child is in. The use of color was also great for portraying the feelings of the girl, as her dress becomes darker as her feelings get darker, and then get lighter as she lets them out.

The theme of this book is twofold. The first theme is about how to deal with growing up and the increasing judgement of a society around you and their perceived notions of what you should and shouldn't be doing, and what you should and shouldn't look like. As children get older, they begin to learn the boundaries of the world around them and become aware of just how much space they take up, especially in comparison to those around them. The author is also the illustrator so they're able to capture this in the words that are repeated throughout the book and in the illustrations of the girl as she grows larger and larger in the pictures. The other theme that can be taken away from the book is that words have power and impact. In reading the book, children can learn how their words affect others, having a lasting impact and continuing to stick around well past the moments they are used. Depending on the experiences of the child and/or parents reading the book, they could take a different lesson away from it.

The mood of the story goes from hopeful and happy, to sad and dark, then back to hopeful and a more calm feeling. When the child is very young, she experiences the world around her in new experiences and she's taken care of and happy and everything is bright. As she gets older and the world begins to leave a lasting impression on her, the mood gets darker and darker, represented with the colors of the illustrations. The words she hears become a big part of the story and affect the mood as they're repeated for emphasis and the girl gets more and more sad. At the end, when she releases a lot of the pent up emotions and comes to be self-confident and ignore the words of those around her the mood of the story changes as it becomes calm and hopeful again as the girl is more comfortable in her body. Throughout the book, the reader easily feels what the little girl is feeling and quickly empathizes with her.

Rating:  ★★★★

References

Harrison, V. (2023). Big. Little, Brown and Company.