Alison Goldberg convinced Kathy Choi and me to squeeze in the Jane Addams Hull House Museum Tour and Jane Addams Peace Association Children’s Book Awards during our trip to ALA. Kathy and I took the same flight from Boston to Chicago. We landed at 2:30 pm, thinking there was plenty of time to get to the 4:30 museum tour. We even thought we had time to drop off our luggage at the hotel first. Ha!
We didn’t realize that Chicago traffic is a snarl on Fridays. In fact, it’s Monday through Fridays starting at 2 pm, according to my Uber driver. And strangely, this includes the highway traffic INTO the city!
I had been to Chicago a number of times to visit my daughter at Northwestern University in Evanston, and it always seemed to take around an hour. The Uber driver also explained that it was because we took SIDE STREETS! In fact, we did!
At any event, we arrived a tad late but in time for the Hull House museum tour, a well-attended event! I learned that this was a safe space for queers back when it was founded in 1889! Still, the F.B.I. kept a close watch on the Hull House participants because they were alarmed by the diversity of thought leaders who congregated here.
I learned from my picture book, Postcards from Malcolm X, that the F.B.I. also cased Malcolm X AND Yuri Kochiyama’s family. In fact, the F.B.I. rented the house across the street from Yuri’s house to spy on them years before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Why? Because her father owned a wholesale fish company, which made them middle class, living in the white neighborhood of San Pedro, California.
This makes me wonder exactly what the F.B.I. is actually up to. But I digress…
The awards ceremony was wonderful. I really enjoyed all the speeches — hearing the motivation for writing the book, as well as the story-behind-the-story. What a great event! I’m so glad to have made it in time!
p.s. Here is a picture book to learn more about Jane Addams and the Hull House she founded:
p.p.s. Related posts:
9 People Who Changed The World: Nobel Peace Prize Picture Books
Fortune Cookies for Everyone and meeting Colleen Kong-Savage at ALA
APALA Awards and Aloha Everything!
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My books:
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
- ⭐ Starred review from Kirkus
- ⭐ Starred review from Publishers Weekly
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal
- Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
Free and downloadable guide:
Barbed Wire Between Us Teacher’s Guide
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Gold Award
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
The Traveling Taco:
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Silver Award
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bookshop.org / 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)
- Pennsylvania Mountain Laurel Book Award Nominee 2026-27
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
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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
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Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
