Today is International Jazz Day! To celebrate, please welcome my guest author today, Matthew Gollub, with his list of jazz books for kids. We are giving away a signed copy of The Jazz Fly (hardcover book with CD and free download). Please fill out Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter. Matthew Gollub is the award-winning author…
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, was one of two black students to attend the University of Georgia fifty years ago. She recalls, “We were greeted by a screaming, howling mob of students, and I think some provocateurs…And as we walked under the arch, the students were yelling and screaming all kinds of epithets, and telling us to go…
I brought my daughters and one of their friends to see an art exhibit on Harlem. We were fortunate to get a private tour by Vera Ingrid Grant, Director of the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center in Harvard Square, on her show, HARLEM: Found Ways, a collection…
I received so many great picture book suggestions for my first list, 10 Great Picture Books to Learn About Africa, that I had to include them on a new list. So here it is. Part Two: 10 More Great Picture Books To Learn About Africa. This new list highlights seemingly ordinary people who find ways to…
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Carole Boston Weatherford in Roxbury, Massachusetts last year. I was struck by her quiet elegance and dignity. Her books reflect that too. Carole Boston Weatherford is on the left. Ekua Holmes is on the right. I didn’t realize how many #BlackHistoryMonth stories that would have remained largely untold…
Today, I wanted to look at the Civil Rights Movement told through art and children’s books. Both are powerful communication tools both to educate and as a means to connect with emotionally with what happened. Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter & Shane W. Evans How…
You might recognize Furqan from our Multicultural Children’s Book Day poster! Robert Liu-Trujillo created the artwork for our event. When Rob gave us sketches for the poster, we didn’t know the boy in the flat top was a character in his book; he just appealed to us and we picked him right away! I’m thrilled…
I’ve been seeing tweets about the Tuskegee Airmen that have been passing away. NPR has an article on Roscoe Brown: Remembering Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown, Educator And Civil Rights Trailblazer. He recently passed away in July at age 94. I wouldn’t have noticed the tweets, had I not been fortunate to read Carole Boston Weatherford’s excellent novel…
It was an honor and a thrill to meet author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Ekua Holmes of Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Did you know that Voices of Freedom won: 2016 Caldecott Honor Book 2016 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book 2016 John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award…