KRLemmons African American Authors, African American Illustrators, Children's literature, Multicultural literature

Happy Birthday Jerry Pinkney!

On this day in 1939, Jerry Pinkney, a future award winner children’s book author/illusrator was born.  Read about this multifaceted and award winning author/illustrator here:

More information about Jerry Pinkney:

Exhibition: http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/787.html

The Pinkney family: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/multi-day/net-profiles/6-pinckney-family.html

New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/books/review/Sutton-t.html?_r=0

Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/pinkneyj/featuredbooks

Interview: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0916-jul2014/LA0916Conversation.pdf

KRLemmons African American Authors, African American History, African American Literature, African American Poetry, Children's literature

Giving Thanks Always: Two Children’s Thanksgiving Books

Everyday that I wake up I give thanks.  As a person who is grateful to wake up this morning, and as a school librarian, I’m sharing two books that talk about thanks and Thanksgiving from different perspectives.  These books may be found in your local library and/or can be purchased at Amazon.com

Thanks A Million by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Publisher: Greenwillow Books. 2006.  ISBN-10: 068817292X; ISBN-13: 978-0688172923. 32 pages. Ages 5 and up.

Review from School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 4–Sixteen thoughtful poems about being thankful for everyday things. Grimes uses a variety of forms that include haiku, a riddle, and a rebus in selections that speak directly to the experiences of young children. In Lunch Box Love Notes, a big sister sometimes resents having to watch out for her baby brother, but a note left in her lunch box by her mother thanking her for taking such good care of Ray makes it worthwhile. Dear Teacher closes, Signed, David/who only hates math/½ as much/as he used to. A Lesson from the Deaf simply and eloquently describes saying thank you in sign language. Cabreras acrylic illustrations are distinctive, folksy, and effective. The art for Mystery is particularly effective, showcasing 42 children of different ethnicities in small, rectangular portraits. A lovely book for reflection and discussion.–Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

A Strawbeater’s Thanksgiving by Irene Smalls, illustrated by Melodye Benson Rosales. Publisher: Little Brown & Co. 1998.  ISBN-10: 0316798665; ISBN-13: 978-0316798662.  32 pages. Ages 7 and up.

Review from School Library Journal:

Grade 2-5-In this tale based on slave narratives, Smalls presents little-known traditions and unfamiliar figures of speech. At the annual corn-shucking party, seven-year-old Jess longs to be the “strawbeater” who, according to the author’s note, “stands behind a fiddler, reaches around his left shoulder, and beats on the strings while the fiddle is being played, in the manner of a snare drum.” He must wrestle Nathaniel, a bigger boy, for the honor, and when he is chosen for his tenacity rather than his brawn, the festivities begin. There is dancing, singing, good-natured competition, and plenty of food. The story line is somewhat stilted and would require some historical background to be fully appreciated. Rosales’s vibrant, full-color oil paintings carry the emotion and spirit of the day. The bright, bold reds and browns add a sense of power and strength. This is not as satisfying as Patricia and Fredrick McKissack’s Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (Scholastic, 1994), but it helps to fill out the life stories of slaves and presents an interesting glimpse of a harvest celebration of the period.
Beth Tegart, Oneida City Schools, NY
KRLemmons African American Authors, Resources

2014 Arbuthnot Lecture: Andrea Davis Pinkney

The 2014 Arbuthnot Lecturer was Andrea Davis Pinkney,  vice president and editor at large of Scholastic’s Trade Books, will deliver the 2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. The announcement was made Monday, January 28, 2013 by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), during the ALA Midwinter Meeting held Jan. 25 – 29, in Seattle.

“We are honored to recognize Andrea Pinkney for her significant contributions to literature for young people provided through a body of work that brings a deeper understanding of African American heritage,” stated 2014 Arbuthnot Committee Chair Susan Moore.

Andrea Davis Pinkney is a New York Times best-selling writer of more than 20 books for children and young adults including picture books, novels and nonfiction. During the course of her career, Pinkney has launched many high-profile publishing and entertainment entities, including Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Publishing’s Jump at the Sun imprint, the first African American children’s book imprint at a major publishing company.

Pinkney’s work includes such award winning titles as “Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down,” illustrated by Brian Pinkney, published by Little, Brown and Company; “Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride,” illustrated by Brian Pinkney, published by Disney/Jump at the Sun Books; “Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters,” illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, published by Harcourt,a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book;and “Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra,” illustrated by Brian Pinkney, published by Hyperion Books for Children, a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor Book.

The University of Minnesota was selected as the host site for the 2014 Arbuthnot Lecture. The press release on the host selection can be read here.  A digital exhibit, in conjunction with the 2014 Arbuthnot Lecture, can be accessed here.

The lecture can be viewed on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC5y1RTGEZQ

KRLemmons African American Authors

R.I.P. Walter Dean Myers

I learned that Walter Dean Myers passed away yesterday, July 2nd.  A prolific author of children’s and young adult books, an award winning author, Myers was the voice for the young African American male.  He will surely be missed by many.

Thanks to Chery Hudson, who posted an excerpt from his 2009 Arbuthnot Lecture at the Children’s Defense Fund’s Alex Haley Farm.  He wrote about the “Geography of the Heart.”

I want my readers to come to me, but I am willing to make the journey to where they are. I will appreciate the valleys of their lives, and the mountains. I will swim the rivers of their doubts and traverse the deserts of frustration they must traverse. It is not a fixed place that we must reach, but rather the common geography of the human heart.
What I am trying to do with my books is to bring familiar cultural elements into my stories while at the same time challenging my readers to expand their horizons.
I want to humanize the people I depict. I want to show them struggling, yes. To show them living within their own cultural heritage, yes. But even more I want to show them in the universal striving for love and meaning that we all experience.
I write about young men testing the boundaries of manhood and young women trying to build relationships. I write about young people abandoned as being excessive to the global economy and who have become within the United States not strangers in a strange land, but strangers in the familiar garden they should be calling home.
I need, we need to bring our young people into the fullness of America’s promise and to do that we must rediscover who they are and who we are and be prepared to make the journey with them whatever it takes. We must convince our leaders that it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults and, once we convince them of that great truth, we must make them care about it. My conceit is that literature can be a small path along that journey.

Thank you Walter Dean Myers for sharing your literature with the world.

KRLemmons African American Authors, African American Poetry, Resources

April 18 Poet of the Day: Haki Madhubuti

April 18 Poet of the Day is Haki Madhubuti.  Born Donald Luther Lee in Little Rock, Arkansas, be is poet, essayist, editor and educator. He cofounded, along with two others, Third World Press. Read more about this multitalented poet here:

Additional resources on Haki Madhubuti:

Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/haki-madhubuti

African American Literature Book Club (AALBC): http://aalbc.com/authors/haki.htm

Third World Press: http://www.thirdworldpressbooks.com/

Black Past: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/madhubuti-haki-r-don-l-lee-1942

Interview on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1ZwA9Zx9U

Speech given at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore, MD via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfsfCzoitxQ

KRLemmons African American Authors, African American Biography, African American Literature, Lesson Plans, Resources

March 25 Woman of the Day: Toni Cade Bambara

Toni Cade Bambara, born on March 25 in 1939, is March 25 Woman of the Day.  Read about this author, film-maker, and college professor here:

Other resources on Ms. Bambara:

Lesson plans on Ms. Bambara’s stories: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/bambara.html

Pearson Prentice Hall: http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phlit/author_bios/bambara_tc.html

Voices From the Gap, University of Minnesota: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/bambaraToni.php

The Bombing of Osage Avenue, a documentary written and narrated by Toni Cade Bamabara: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVbOlY7svfE

Books written by Toni Cade Bambara:

Gorilla, My Love

The Salt Eaters

These Bones Are Not My Child

The Sea Birds Are Still Alive