Category: Uncategorized

Well, I had an opportunity today to test the elementary waters I wrote about yesterday. I went to Bushwick to drop off a book order at a school that I love—I’ve worked with this charter school for years and they always roll out the red carpet for me. Today I wasn’t expecting to stay long but the librarian wanted me to speak with the principal so I took a seat and watched as 25 first grade students buzzed about the room. There were a lot of small fires to put out but the librarian was up to the task. One boy came up to me and asked, “Are you Marshawn’s mom?” I explained that I was a visiting author and then pulled out the new books—within seconds I had a small cluster of kids around me and little hands reaching for the four books. They stroked the covers—“Oooh! They’re so…

I haven’t said much publicly about the #weneeddiversebooks campaign but I took a moment last week to write a piece for The Huffington Post and it just went up this afternoon. Here’s a taste:

The recent #weneeddiversebooks social media campaign has raised awareness of the need for greater diversity in children’s literature, and I am happy to see this important issue garner the attention it deserves. Activism around diversity isn’t new, of course, but repeated calls for change over the past few decades have largely fallen on deaf ears. Those of us who have been advocating for greater diversity and equity in children’s publishing are watching to see what will happen next. Will the overwhelmingly white publishing industry simply add a few more authors of color and call it a day? Will those who are new to the struggle be satisfied with superficial rather than structural change?

Missing from…

#WeNeedDiverseBooks formed in direct response to the all white male panel selected to be the voice of kidlit at BookCon. The movement happened because so many people are so tired of the lack of books that feature characters of diverse ethnicity, sexual preference or religion. This issue is simply the tip of the iceberg and as such, will have no simple solution. What I’m saying is, it ain’t over.

As readers/consumers we have to remain vigilant. Watch the lists and articles to be sure they are truly diverse and if not, call them on it! Request books at your local library and book store by authors of color. There are plenty of suggestions on what we as readers can do but the real work lies with publishers. Not only do books need to be published by authors of color, by Native Americans, authors who are LGBTQ or with different abilities…

title: Silver People

author: Margarita Engle

date: HMH Children’s Books; March 2013

main character: Mateo

“Strange as it seems, the ‘globalization’ of international trade did not begin with the Internet but was launched a century ago when a new waterway suddenly made the world seem small.” This line ends Silver People, the story of the workers who built the Panama Canal in which Margarita Engle combines the voices of workers from Cuba, Panama, Jamaica and the United States to tell the story of the conditions in which the Canal was built. From the very beginning of the story, readers are aware of the differing treatment people received that took into account details such as skin tone, country of origin and gender. Although perpetuated by the Whites in power, this racism is so institutionalized that not even they can alter this system. They’re also aware of the culture…

#WeNeedDiverseBooks because this month, there are FIVE Young Adult books released in the United States Written by authors of color.

 

Truth or Dare (Rumor Central #4) by Reshonda Tate Billingsley; Kensington

Cat Person by Seo Kim; Koyama Press

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson; Arthur A. Levine

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatrama; Nancy Paulsen Books

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki; First Second Press

 

Complete list of 2014 releases.

In 2013 there were FIVE

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams Garcia; Amistad, 21 May
How I became a ghostby Tim Tingle; Road Runner Press; 28 May
Get over it by Nikki Carter; Dafina Press; 28 May
The savage blue (The vicious deep ) by Zoraida Córdova; Sourcebooks Fire, May
Death, Dickinson and the Demented life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres-Sanchez; Running Press Kids; 28 May

In 2012 there were SIX

Title: Words With Wings

Author: Nikki Grimes

Date: Wordsong; 2013

Main Character: Gabriella/Gabby

I am always amazed at how books I read one after the other share similar themes, plots or characters.

On the first leg of my trip to Amarillo, TX last week, I decided it was time to dive into Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. Bachelard (1884-1962) was a European philosopher whose research was devoted to the domain of intimacy. I’ve only completed the first chapter of the book so far, but in this chapter he describes our relationship to houses both in dreams and daydreams and how the presence of a house in daydreams, literature or poetry through our intimate connection with them, provides a sense of protection. While dreams have been studied, daydreams are more difficult to capture and analyze but Gaston says still of significance.

“Poetry comes naturally from a daydream”.

He describes daydreams…

On May 10 you will find me at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum for their second annual African American Children’s Book Fair . If you’re in the area, please stop by and bring the kids in your life to meet two dozen outstanding authors, illustrators, and storytellers that are scheduled to appear:

R. Gregory Christie	Corine Hyman	Crystal Marable
Bryan Collier	Dr. Mubina H. Kirmani	Dr. Tiffany Owens
Pat Cummings	Steven Sellers Lapham	Calvin Ramsey
Tara Doaty	London Ladd	LaMarr Darnell Shield
Zetta Elliot	Chuku Lee	Javaka Steptoe
Jan Spivey Gilchrist	Lori Nelson Lee	Shadra Strickland
Wade Hudson	EB Lewis	Renee Watson
Cheryl Willis Hudson	Kelly Starling Lyons	Charlotte Riley Webb

I hoped to have my five new books available for sale, but it’s crunch time and that’s looking less and less likely. Fingers crossed I’ll at least have copies of Max Loves Munecas to share with younger readers in…

The wait is over and I deeply thank you for your patience.

Jordyn and Jackson are back and going through their rollercoaster wild ride that has new twists and turns in Betrayed Series. If you haven’t picked up previous books, please click on this link (Amazon & Smashwords) and catch up!

This is the fourth installment of The City Boys Series of Betrayed Book One. An urban romance suspense where revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Betrayed Book One Part Four (City Boys Series) Jordyn has made the decision that she cannot under ANY circumstances see Jackson anymore, but unfortunately her body has not gotten the message. Leaving him was the hardest thing to do, but she knows her revenge must come first and she must keep a cold heart in order to pull off a successful con.

Now the con not only hinges on success…

Yesterday, we learned the ins and outs of pushing your new posts to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Today, we continue our tour of the Publicize universe with the three other social networks you can connect to from your WordPress.com account: LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Path.

The ability to share your content with different audiences quickly and easily will help you cultivate a healthy readership. Just as important, with Publicize you can tweak your sharing preferences so that each post reaches its intended destination: you can always choose which services to publish to, and what custom message to include (if any).

You can connect to these three services in exactly the same way, and from the exact same page, as the ones discussed yesterday. Simply visit Settings → Sharing in your dashboard, click “Connect” on the desired one, and authenticate your account in the window that opens. Once you’re done…