An insightful post from my friend and colleague, Edi Campbell:
Congratulations to the ALA Youth Media Awards Winners and Honorees
A huge CONGRATULATIONS to the Latin@ authors and books that were recognized at this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards.
Here are the winners and honor books:
Pura Belpré Award (Illustrator) honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.
Winner:
Honor Books:
Pura Belpré Award (Author) honoring Latino authors whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience:
Honor Book:
William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens:
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. The Caldecott Honor Books included:
Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children. The Sibert Honor Books included:
2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a lecture at a…
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Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa, founded by Dr. Maulana Karenga, is “a celebration of family, community and culture” from December 26 through January 1. The Nguzo Saba, also known as the Seven Principles, are featured during this time. The Seven Principles are:
Day 1: Umoja-Unity: To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Day 2: Kujichagulia-Self Determination: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Day 3: Ujima-Collective Work and Responsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and solve them together.
Day 4: Ujamaa-Cooperative Economics: To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Day 5: Nia-Purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Day 6: Kuumba-Creativity: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Day 7: Imani-Faith: To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
As we begin a new day in a new year, let us model, apply, and practice these principles in our daily living.
More information on Kwanzaa can be found on the official Kwanzaa website
Librarian-ing on Twitter
A better title for this post might be “Readers’ Advisory on Twitter” but making up a word was more fun and less jargon-y.
Anywho, I have a break from school until classes start back up at the end of January which is very exciting. During that time I plan to – when I’m already on Twitter – search for people who have asked for book recommendations. I’ve been doing it sporadically for some time, sparked by the “Slam the Boards” assignment I had last spring (2013).
I enjoy it and there’s a chance that the folks I interact with will go to their library to pick up these books. Muahhhaaa, my hidden agenda uncovered!!
P.S. My first year anniversary of working as a library associate at AACPL was yesterday. Cheers! 🙂
Black Girl with a Spanish Name
By Libertad Araceli Thomas
“Do you know what your name means?”
This was a question that made me hate name tags since the second grade. “Libertad? You know it means ‘Freedom’ in Spanish, right?” Of course, I knew what my name meant. I knew what it meant when I was old enough to talk, I knew what it meant before I ever entered school, and I knew what it meant at 18 years old when I took my first job as a barista at a local coffee shop and was again subjected to wearing the name tags I so dreaded as a kid. At home, I was Libertad, but to the world I was a Black girl with a Spanish name.
From first glance, loads of people tell me I don’t “look” Latina. And what’s devastating is that for a while, I believed them. You see, a darker skinned girl…
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Holiday gift ideas from Cherrie Amour!
Hello Everyone:
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If you missed Cherrie Amour’s Detroit appearance last month–you can enjoy reading her poetry book or listening to her CD available below. Of course; anyone would be delighted to receive a Cherrie Amour gift for the holidays. You’ll appreciate Cherrie’s take on “What Love Ain’t. See the link below to download the track for free.
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For more info on Cherrie’s book and CD; click on the Red Bows.
Christmas is December 25th, Hanukkah started at sundown on December 16th – December 24th andKwanzaa starts on December 26th – January 1st 2015.
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Cherrie Amour
Baltimore-based Cherrie Amour is a poet/author who writes about love, life and relationships. She recently released her first book of poetry, Free to Be Me, Poems on Love, Life and Relationships (one of the poems, “Hermoso Negro” won a 2013 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and is featured in the 2014 Paterson Literary Review)
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Latin@s in Kid Lit at the Library: Interviews with Fellow Librarians
By Sujei Lugo
The Latin@s in Kid Lit at the Library series focuses on interviews with children’s librarians, youth services librarians, and school librarians, where they share their experiences, knowledge, and challenges using Latino children’s literature in their libraries. In this second entry of this series, I interview Crystal Brunelle.
Crystal is a library media specialist from Wisconsin. In times when schools and their libraries are impacted by budget cuts, closings, and lack of institutional and government support, there are still school librarians and media specialists striving to support their students, teachers and community.
Crystal Brunelle
Library Media Specialist, Northern Hills Elementary School, Onalaska, Wisconsin
Blogger for richincolor.com (co-founder) and readingtl.blogspot.com (personal blog)
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your identity, and your library.
I am a white mid-westerner with German ancestors. My family moved many times, so my childhood years were spent in various cities in both Texas…
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December 2014
I’ve never had such a difficult time finding new books! Two. Two books this month by authors of color.
Fame of Thrones by Amir Abrams and Ni Ni Simone; k-Teen
Lights, Love and Lip Gloss by Amir Abrams and Ni Ni Simone; K-Teen
book review: Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood
title: Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood
author: Varsha Bajaj
date: March 2014
main character: Abby Spencer
When Abby has a traumatic reaction to coconut, her mom realizes that it’s time to bring Abby’s dad into the picture. What else might Abby have inherited from him? Of course, Abby has always wanted to know her dad and she’s always daydreamed about him. Reality turns out to be larger than what she ever imagined because her dad is a huge Bollywood star. Her father is a person with an incredible career but he’s also quite human so, his first reaction is to invite his daughter to come to Mumbai to visit him and his mother so that Abby can get to know her family.
Bajaj takes a story that has a glamorous appeal and manages to be believable. Rather than giving us an exotic India, she exposes young readers to the Bollywood…
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review: Pig Park
“I confess. I’m a glutton. This book had me at the cover. That image of a delicious marranito? I can imagine the moist cake-like center, the smell of molasses. I love this cover. I want to eat this cover. “~All Brown All Around Blog
Title: Pig Park
Author: Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
Date: Cinco Puntos; 2014
Main Character: Masi Burciaga
Masi is a 15 year old growing up in an area outside Chicago known as Pig Park. This once thriving working class neighborhood is falling apart after losing its main source of income, the lard company that helped give the community its name. Masi is an only child and her friends in the neighborhood are much like an extended family to her. She’s in and out of their homes as much as she is her own.
Colonel Franco, an outsider, comes to the neighborhood with an elaborate plan to attract visitors…
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The CamaraIfe Maktaba 