I have always loved words. When I was a child, I competed in spelling bees and I’d spend hours writing random words over and over just because I liked the way the letters looked together. I enjoyed reading, speaking, and writing words so much so that when I was seven, I wrote a 21-page […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 15: Maya Penn
16 year-old Maya Penn is a CEO, activist, author, illustrator, animator, coder, and so much more. She started her first company at eight years old, has TEDtalked to millions of people across the globe (as the youngest female in history to deliver two back-to back official TED Talks–her 2013 TEDWomen Talk is ranked as one […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 17: Angie Thomas
Sometimes it’s fun to find out things about an author or illustrator that has nothing to do with their craft. For instance, YA author, Angie Thomas, likes playing video games, driving anywhere and nowhere at all, cooking/baking, and Air Jordan collecting. Her favorite foods are baked macaroni and cheese and cheesecake. She was a teenage […]
Biography Blog Post from Edi Campbell
Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of young John Lewis by Jabari Asim and E. B. Lewis. (Nancy Paulsen Books; 2016) I remember reading about John Lewis adopting his family’s chickens as his congregation when he was a child. Asim details this time in Lewis’ life as a character building activity. The muted water color […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 1 Andrea Loney
We at The Brown Bookshelf have been in countdown mode for a while now, excitedly waiting for this day–the commencement of our tenth 28 Days Later campaign! For those who may be joining our celebration for the first time, the goal of 28 Days Later is to promote increased awareness of black authors and illustrators creating books […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 4 Nadia Hohn
While working with this talented author on her 28 Days Later spotlight, I asked if there was something she would like for people to know about her. The email I received made me have one of those constant blinking moments. I’ll let you read it for yourself. Pay specific attention to her question at the end. […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 5 Olive Senior
Olive Senior’s work has been broadcast on both sides of the Atlantic, including the BBC Book at Bedtime and the CBC Festival of Fiction. Her work has been included in the Best Poems on the Underground published by London Transport, and she is a featured poet on The Poetry Archive. Senior’s work often addresses questions […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 6 LaTisha Redding
Today we shine the spotlight on another debut picture book author, LaTisha Redding. Her first title, Calling the Water Drum (Lee & Low, December 2016, illus.by Aaron Boyd) is the story of Henri, a young immigrant from Haiti who loses his parents as they attempt to make their way “across the great waters” to America. […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 8 Leah Henderson
Day 8 begins our focus on book creators for older readers, starting with Leah Henderson whose debut middle grade novel One Shadow on the Wall is due out in June. Leah’s adventuresome spirit and love of stories helped her turn a passing encounter into her first novel. I first met Leah at the Kweli Writers Conference in Spring […]
The Brown Bookshelf 28 Days Later Campaign Day 9 Sarah Everett
This is a special year for The Brown Bookshelf as we celebrate 10 years of bringing authors and illustrators to booklovers. Today, I’m pleased to feature Sarah Everett. She writes from her home in Canada and released her debut novel Everyone We’ve Been in October 2016. She is currently working on a second young adult […]





