What a thrill to be part of the NCTE book awards celebration! The 2025 Charlotte Huck Award® for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Orbis Pictus Award® for Outstanding Nonfiction, and Notable Children’s Poetry Books and Verse Novels List winners will be recognized, with keynote speakers Antwan Eady (The Last Stand), Dan SaSuWeh Jones (Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools), and Charles R. Smith Jr., recipient of the 2025 Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, sharing reflections on their work.
They hosted a lovely luncheon, and my publisher for We Sing From the Heart kindly provided a table for me. Each book honored was given a table where free books were placed at each setting. The author was in charge of creating a cheer for his/her table to do when the book was announced. Talk about pressure! There were poems read, songs sung, and dances executed.
Since we were one of the last tables, we watched and decided to up our game at the last moment. Luckily, We Sing From the Heart is about Simon Tam of the band, The Slants, and he wrote a song about his nearly 9-year ordeal to get his band’s name trademarked, revealing racism within our justice system. We pulled up his song on YouTube, played a short clip, and shouted a short chant.
You can view it here:
This was also my first time in Denver, Colorado! It’s a lovely city and so convenient for anyone going to the convention center! I was able to meet many authors, both old friends and new, as well as English teachers. It was a wonderful experience!
NCTE will be held in Philadelphia next year on November 19-22. It’s a short train ride for me, so I plan to be there. I hope to see you there!
p.s. Related posts:
Activities for We Sing From the Heart
We Sing From the Heart Wins Social Justice Literature Award
Julia Ward Howe Award Presentation for We Sing From the Heart
We Sing From the Heart wins Julia Ward Howe prize for children’s literature!
WE SING FROM THE HEART is Carter G. Woodson Book Award Honoree!
We Sing From the Heart makes Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year 2025!
WE SING FROM THE HEART is an ALSC Notable Children’s Book!
We Sing From the Heart is a Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner!
WE SING FROM THE HEART is Orbis Pictus Recommended Book
WE SING FROM THE HEART wins California Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award
WE SING FROM THE HEART is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
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My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Gold Award
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
- ⭐ Starred review from Kirkus
- Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
The Traveling Taco:
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Silver Award
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- ALSC Notable Children’s Book
- 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
- Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
- 2024 Julia Ward Howe Prize for Children’s Literature Winner
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
- Recommended Reading for the Social Justice Literature Award 2025 (International Literacy Association)
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award Orange Blossom List for Nonfiction
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
