They're both lovely. The purple seems more true/specific to the character, and the green has a strong sense of movement and adventure. For me, those would be the competing considerations.

The green. There's a lot more going on and it opens the imagination to what might be inside. :)

I like the green cover because it gives Martha some context to the story. I like the purple, too. But the green offers more story.<br /><br />Don, Devas T.

I like the sense of the coming adventure in the first. You can get a sense of the journey she is about to undertake.

I love the second one.<br /><br />Maybe because it&#39;s already part of our home.<br /><br />Maybe because it&#39;s more gentle and creative and feminine and personal and unique.<br /><br />But both are fabulous!

Kyra. What an interactive post. Tough but beautiful choices. The ship suggests the theme of journey. <br />The seated sewer allows us to see the quilt pattern .<br />And also to see Martha Ann in close up - her beautiful spirit shines through. Many thanks for sharing!

OOOh This is next to impossible!!! I can&#39;t make a decision on this one. I love both covers!!! It&#39;s like asking me to choose which of my children I love more he hehe he he! I can&#39;t wait till the book is out. It&#39;s a very important book. Best to you and Congrats as well.

OOOh This is next to impossible!!! I can&#39;t make a decision on this one. I love both covers!!! It&#39;s like asking me to choose which of my children I love more he hehe he he! I can&#39;t wait till the book is out. It&#39;s a very important book. Best to you and Congrats as well.

The purple one is too subdued and quiet. The green one looks more inviting as it speaks like &quot;come on the adventure with me&quot; - E :) <br /><br />Elysabeth Eldering<br />Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad, 50-state, mystery, trivia series<br /><br />Where will the adventure take you next?<br /><br />http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com<br />http://

I like the green one because it is more detailed, people will wonder what is inside the book.<br /><br />Nicole Weaver<br />http://www.melangeofcultures.wordpress.com<br />http:outskirtspress.com/nicoleweaver

I like both but I&#39;d have to agree with the others about the green cover though.<br /><br />And I got a second opinion from my 3 yr old, who, when asked which picture she liked, pointed to green one and said &quot;that&#39;s so cool.&quot;<br /><br />She likes anything to do with water and I think the ship caught her attention.<br /><br />Hope that helps.

Hi Kyra,<br /><br />I think both covers are great. But as someone who works with youth, I think the blue cover would be more non-gender specific. They&#39;re both beautiful. I think the lavendar/pink cover is so sweet, nice and soothing to the eye. But perhaps the blue would stand out more on the internet, as well as be more welcoming for boys who may want to read the title. Just my opinions

I like the green one, too, for the same reasons others have mentioned -- sense of adventure, historical context. Second one is lovely, but doesn&#39;t suggest a journey of any kind.

Hi Kyra,<br /><br />I love the second one but decided to ask my 13 yr old daughter. She says if she saw the book in the library, she would chose the first one because...&quot;the girl is leaving behind her family and it makes me curious to find out what adventure she is going on alone and the second one is sort of boring.&quot;(her words)

She is planning to go see the queen and the purple cover gives you no indication of this adventure. I think kids would respond more to the green cover and wonder what she is going to do. It gives you a better overall indication of what is going to happen. Just the quilting alone, only says &quot;She is sewing.&quot; My vote is for the green.

Congratulations, Kyra! I love the first one with the boat. It looks like she is starting a journey.

The second cover (lilac) strikes me the most. The color is very soothing and calming and &quot;patient&quot;, which Martha Ann would have to be to spend 50 years trying to meet the Queen of England. (Even though my favorite colors are blues and greens.) I also think the second graphic better reflects the story as well.

It is a welcome development. We expect more of such to stroll into our world. Better on a cold night when our neighbors will be snoring hard under the spell of sleep!

Wow! These are fascinating statistics ... sobering in fact. It is both surprising and disappointing to see that the award is not as inclusive as it might be.

Very informative and insightful. Thank you.

Fascinating analysis... I can see you&#39;re right on top of the situation. I hope someday your books will win.

Thanks for sharing this informative email with me. I especially enjoyed the links in this email. Good luck with your books.<br />CLewis

You are truly a researcher par excellence, Kyra. It is apparent that members of the CSK committee are not aware of the varied sources of new African-American illustrators and authors.<br /><br />Your stats are certainly enlighten-ing, and something the CSK committee should investigate. Hopefully they will this blog and be encourage to &quot;reach beyond&quot;.

I am thrilled that our kidlitosphere friend, Tanita Davis, won an CSK honor for Mare&#39;s War!

Important information, Kyra. Thanks so much for compiling the stats and sharing them. I support and appreciate the CSK Awards. But I love when I see a new name on the list.

I was just going to chime in with the word &#39;fascinating,&#39; but I see I&#39;ve been beaten to the punch. Still, I *did* find the nubmers fascinating and thought-provoking.<br /><br />In terms of whether the committee is looking at too small a pool of potential winners, it might be interesting to go back to the starred books in years where there were repeat winners and see if standouts got

This is absolutely wonderful!

Thanks so much for this!

Beautiful, Thank you

Thanks for posting the vid! Glad you enjoyed the blog. There are two other videos on my YouTube channel as well as a tribute to Friday Foster.<br /><br />Thanks again.<br />becca

This post changed my life. <br />I am holding in my hands issue #7 of the new Black Panther in which the Panther mantle has been assumed by Shuri, the sister of King T&#39;Challa. It&#39;s the hotness and so was your post.

Wonderful!

Nice. The cartoons are fascinating!

I have not read Aya or Aya of Yop but I do have both of them in my media center and middle school girls really enjoy them. While I prefer working with high school students, I find that middle schoolers are more willing to explore different varieties of literature.

Read it. Love it! I have the sequel. I need a wet noodle lashing for not writing a review.

Kyra, I appreciate your support for writers. The world will always remember you.<br /><br />http://omoruyiu.blogspot.com

What a wonderful batch of statistics! It's so nice to see numbers saying something good for a change. It may not be enough, but upward trends are a pleasure to see!

Yes, I am glad the number of titles are increasing, but I am not impressed. The stats only support the sad fact that poc writers are underrepresented in the marketplace. It is assumed that people of color can and do relate to characters regardless of color. Well, why doesn't that assumption to apply to all readers? Can't the dominant culture relate to characters who do not look like them?

No doubt,it is a welcome development. We can still improve.

These French guys are amazing! I had a good time on their search engine.

how cool is THAT! glad you're blogging again...

Thanks for that. It's an amazing search site.

I have just tried it and they seem not providing any filtering system especially for kids though it's interface is really interesting. RegardsRonald

That's beautiful

Funny and nice!

I am from Kansas City, and my mom didn't send me a picture of that fabulous library. I am so glad to know about it.

So much is expected from President Obama.Beautiful things are not achieved overnight. I believe his goodwill in the world over will put a smile on the faces of all.

Thanks, Kyra. I'm delighted to find your blog.

I agree, it will be very interessting how things change in education with the Obama administration! I am hoping for great things and will definitely keep myself updated with his weekly addresses. Thanks for the info!

Ah, I'm anxious for your next post. In the meantime, may I share with you and your readers about an opportunity to win a free book?Join us our blog community.Add us to your blog roll or other sidebar links, and we’ll enter your name in a drawing for a free book from our Prize Bucket or a $5 Amazon gift certificate.Link Promo

Hi Krya! I enjoyed visiting your blog. I'll be back.

I enjoy your reviews. Please check out our new feature, Shades of Love at Color Online

Kendra by Coe Booth was amazing and should definitely be considered. I'd love to see My Life as a Rhombus but Varian Johnson get some attention as well.

I'm strongly seconding Coe Booth and Varian Johnson. I also loved Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper.

CSK illustrators award to We Are The Ship by Kadir Nelson - its a masterpiece, with honors to Art From Her Heart by Shane Evans and Becoming Billie Holiday by Floyd Cooper

I love the Ruby books by Derrick Barnes.

The only one of those that I've read is Sunrise Over Fallujah, and I think it's worthy of the award. I'm going to get the Hip Hop Speaks to Children for my kids to read, it looks like something they'd love.

We Are the Ship:The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson is a true labor of love and a masterpiece. I would give both Becoming Billy Holiday and Art From Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter an honor award.

Great post you have here. I'll have to follow up at BBS, too, though I did Twitter it.My thoughts: Becoming Billie Holiday, March On! Christine King Farris. There's so many. Kadir, definitely! But what category, illustration or writing. Maybe both?! I'd like to see Zetta Elliott be recognized for Bird.

Great post - I absolutely agree with you about the need for this. Thanks for a great list!

Honestly, I wasnt sure if they were still doing the CSk awards since I dont hear anything about it. I'm glad you posted this. My daughter(11) and I vote for the Ruby book.

Rubert the Jumping Duck by Jessica Bernard and Rubert the Jumping Duck Goes on Vacation should definitely be entered into this contest aside from it be written by a seven year old children. One reviewer describes Rubert the Jumping Duck as Funny little Rubert, a duck who loves to jump, jumps throughout all his preparations for school, and his jump muscles get stronger and stronger. He jumps to

Ooo, I love these lists! Thanks for the lists.

CHAMELEON by Charles R. Smith Jr.

How about After Tupac and D. Foster by Jacqueline Woodson? I know that she won an CSK for Miracle's Boys and an honor for Locomotion, and I think After Tupac... is arguably stronger than either of those. Hard to say if it could beat out offerings as wonderful as We are the Ship and Sunrise over Fallujah, though.

I'd love to see Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper or I, Matthew Henson by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez recognized. Carole writes such beautiful books. It would be great for her to win a King Award.

Kyra, I love the factoids you've provided with some of the selections. Your point about the same illustrators receiving the award is of special interest because Don Tate has really helped increase my awareness of some really good illustrators out there. I hope the committee really has their ears to the ground or eyes to the pictures, in this case. Because there seems to be a lot of good talent

Kyra,Thanks for making me aware of this post. I have seen so many posts on blogs for the best of this, best of that and knew that I just could really begin to put together such a list because I was gone for more than half the year and missed reading many, many books. I can say that I have put "Chess Rumble" into anyone's hands who stand still long enough; I've gotten numerous students to read "

What a great post! You ask some bold & provocative questions, Kyra--I'm particularly struck by the lack of recognition (work?) being given to black women illustrators. I'm new to the field of children's literature, and I have to say--so far I'm seeing a LOT of imbalances that make me more than a little uneasy. The community of black writers and illustrators seems quite small, and that doesn't

P.S. Thanks for the vote for BIRD. It was an honor to work on such a beautiful story.

Where my girls at?!?! Yes, it is interesting that there are less women of color in the field. Recently, when asked to make a list I struggled to do so. When I was choosing my adviser (Pat Cummings) while I was in grad school, it meant so much that she was available to lead me down the book-making road because 1) her work is fabulous, and 2) she was, at the time, the only Af. Am. female

because "we" have the CSK awards, and thank heaven for that, does that then exclude Af. Americans from winning the Caldecott too?I think this point has been brought up before in the blogosphere, but I'm unable to pinpoint where.There's definitely a nagging sense that books by/for African Americans perhaps aren't as seriously considered for the Caldecott because the CSK will absorb them.When I

I think it's both. Unless we bookmakers want to end up making the same book over and over again to appease the industry gatekeepers (to borrow from Z.E.), we shouldn't become complacent on the issue. The Caldecott is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Does that then exclude Af. Am. artists because we have an award for us already? If that is the

*Also, I love, love, love "Becoming Billie Holiday". I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it yet, but Floyd Cooper's images are glorious.

Soon Kadir Nelson is going to have to do like Oprah did with the day time Emmy's and take himself out of the running. I think After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson and Pemba's Ghost by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya Hegamin could medal. I totally forgot about You Can Do it by Tony Dungy.

In the Kansas City Metro area we do all of the Mock Awards including CSK. Although in this case, we only do the books on the younger end of the spectrum and we do not do the new author, etc. awards. Here is our list of nominees that we will be discussing and voting on next week. Mock Coretta Scott King nomineesJanuary 2009Abe’s Honest Words. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Doreen

Great post! Thanks for including my book, too! There are so many lovely books. I've been collecting books illustrated by african-americans and have had the honor of meeting a lot of them - hopefully I'll be adding more to my collection soon! It's true there aren't that many of us out there...so it is so wonderful to see those CSK books each year. Caldecotts are exceptional...and I have to keep

Krya,Thank you for making me aware of this. I think it is time for the women to win.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the book BIRD by Zetta Elliott and Shadra Strickland! The book is very stunning and speechlessly beautiful.

As an independent publisher, I'd like to see some independent publishing houses win an award. Check out my latest book at: http://joylovebooks.com/product.htm

I would definitely put Boycott Blues in there - I loved the art and the way of telling the story.

It's an honor to have Howard's Great Hope appear on this list! All of the works here are superb!

I love the book by Nikki Giovanni!!! Her poetry rocks!

This looks like a great book. I am going to look for it.I came here today to check if you are doing a mock Coretta Scott King award this year or if you know of one? With all the excitement of the Cybils going on I am thinking about CSK too...

Thanks for the love! You may also purchase the book from our website www.pollyandmeek.com we have paypal processing and will sign the book prior to shipping.

Love it!

Hello KyraHave you ever come across 'Letterbox Library'? I think you'd enjoy it - I certainly love the regular brochures and have been a member for what feels like forever!www.letterboxlibrary.com

Oh thanks for that tipbit. My goal is to visit London in the next few years. I'll have to stop by this lovely joint.Meek

Wow...Thank you for this information.

I have family in North Carolina. Maybe I'll pay a visit to both the conference and my family. Thanks for the information.

You should check out Storybox. They are great for kids aged 3-6 They are great for Kids aged 3-6 and have a Xmas Tree drawing competition on this month!

Wow!(Meek)

Meek - Yes, I laugh each time I see this post! Best, Kyra