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Christopher S. Ledbetter was a reluctant reader as a child growing up in Durham. His understanding of what that’s like inspires the young adult novels he creates. On his website, he shares: “I continue to write because I see it as an avenue to inspire and uplift. And, because the stories refuse to stop springing into my mind and demanding to be written.”

A former high school teacher with a deep sense of purpose, tales of discovery and transformation call to him. Ledbetter is driven by a desire to empower his young audience and his characters. His contemporary stories mix in fantasy and mythology, his first love.

Drawn (Evernight Teen),  his debut novel, won high praise from Kirkus: “Inventive, fast-paced fantasy with imaginative settings and engaging characters.” Inked, his sequel to Drawn, debuts on July 1. We are honored to feature Christopher S. Ledbetter on Day 23.

The Journey:

I began writing seriously…

Shannon Gibney was adopted as an infant in 1975, and grew up in a multiracial family. From her bio: “When she was 15, her father gave her James Baldwin’s Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, a book that changed her life and made her see the possibilities of the written word. The novel took a long, difficult look at relations between Blacks and Whites, the poor and the rich, gay and straight people, and fused searing honesty with metaphorical beauty. After this experience, Shannon knew that she needed to read everything Baldwin had ever written, and also that she wanted to emulate his strategy of telling the most dangerous, and therefore liberating kind of truth, through writing.” Gibney’s debut YA novel, SEE NO COLOR, was called “an exceptionally accomplished debut” by Kirkus, and School Library Journal points out that “without lecturing readers, Gibney clearly elucidates many issues…

In MAMA’S NIGHTINGALE, award-winning author Edwidge Danticat, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and grew up in New York, tells a timely and finely wrought tale in English and Kreyol of a daughter who is empowered to become an advocate on her mother’s behalf. From the publisher: “After Saya’s mother is sent to an immigration detention center, Saya finds comfort in listening to her mother’s warm greeting on their answering machine. To ease the distance between them while she’s in jail, Mama begins sending Saya bedtime stories inspired by Haitian folklore on cassette tape. Moved by her mother’s tales and her father’s attempts to reunite their family, Saya writes a story of her own—one that just might bring her mother home for good.”

School Library Journal, in a starred review, notes that “Danticat, who was born in Haiti, was separated from her parents until she was 12 years…

The Brown Bookshelf is honored to present Cheryl Willis Hudson to our readers. Not only is she an author, she is also a executive in a publishing company she built with her husband. You will be inspired and uplifted by her amazing story of dedication and passion for African American children’s literature.

The Journey
My path in publishing has been one that emerged from my adventures as a grade school doodler and teacher’s helper to that of professional children’s book publisher. As a child, I loved doing book reports where I could embellish book summaries by adding my own drawings, speech balloons and illustrated book jackets. I also helped my mom, who was a teacher, create bulletin boards and posters and correct her students’ homework. I loved making my own greeting cards for friends, cutting and pasting photographs in scrapbooks, reading poetry and nonfiction and doing things with my hands, so…

From football to fun books, our spotlight shines on an author who retired from one action-packed job, and took on another!  The Brown Bookshelf is honored to present to you on this 16th Day of February:

TREVOR PRYCE

In 1997, Trevor Pryce was selected by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the NFL Draft. He made his presence known through his NFL career with numerous tackles and sacks, and ultimately, was on back-to-back winning Super Bowl teams.

After retiring, Trevor Pryce decided to tackle a different opportunity. In his interview with Purpose to Play, he states that after retirement, he tried to write movie scores, but ended up creating a trilogy of children’s books, the first being An Army of Frogs, an adventure where frogs and turtles defend their homeland against spiders and scorpions set in the Australia.

Since An Army of the Frogs released in…

In 2012, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson won a Coretta Scott King Author Honor award for No Crystal Stair(Carolrhoda, 2012), a young adult “documentary novel” based on the life and work of her great-uncle and Harlem bookseller, Lewis H. Michaux. InThe Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore (Carolrhoda, 2015), Nelson introduces a younger audience to the owner of the historic National Memorial African Bookstore. The story is told from the perspective of his son, Lewis Michaux, Jr., and emphasizes his father’s role as a literacy pioneer in the civil rights movement–one who established a refuge and creative think-space for other activists, scholars, and anyone interested in literature by or about people of the African diaspora. Michaux’s bookstore held over 200,000 such titles, making it the largest “black bookstore” in the country at the time.

The Book Itch is a 2016 CSK Illustrator Honor book. A description from the publisher reads:

“In the 1930s…