As everyone may already know, plans are in full swing for our second Multicultural Children’s Book Day on January 27th! Created by myself and the amazing Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom and myself, event has a goal of not only shing the spotlight on all of the amazing diverse and multicultural children books, authors and illustrators, but also to get these very books into the hands of the children who need them.
We are so excited to announce our line up of 25 diversity authors and illustrations starting January 1st and running through Janaury 25th at the Multicultural Children’s Book Day blog!
As we mentioned, we are collaboring with the Children’s Book Council who reached out to its members to highlight the authors and illustrators of multicultural children’s books!
Please welcome (in alphabetical order):
Tracey Baptiste was born in Trinidad, where she grew up on jumbie stories and fairy tales. Her debut, a young adult novel titled Angel’s Grace, was named one of the 100 best books for reading and sharing by New York City librarians. Tracey is a former teacher, textbook editor, ballerina, and amateur librarian who once started up a library in her house in the hope that everyone would bring their books back late and she would be rich! You know, like other librarians. She is now a wife and mom and lives in New Jersey, where she writes and edits books for kids from a very cozy office in her house that is filled with more toys than she can count. The Jumbies is her second novel.
Kathleen Benson is the coauthor of many picture books, including John Lewis in the Lead, which was illustrated by Benny Andrews. She lives in New York, New York.
Tonya Bolden’s work has garnered many accolades, including the Coretta Scott King Honor Award, James Madison Book Award, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, YALSA Best Book of the Year, and CCBC Best Book of the Year. She lives in New York City.
Tricia Brown is an author, editor, and book developer. She travels often and is a popular speaker in schools, libraries, and events in Alaska as well as the Lower 48. Her multimedia presentations, which include lessons on Alaska natural history and culture, regularly receive high praise from educators and parents. She loves to get kids excited about reading, writing, and art.
Andrea Cheng is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. She writes picture books and middle grade and young adult novels, and also teaches English as a Second Language and children’s literature. She walks daily near her Ohio home. She writes the Anna Wang series (The Year of the Three Sisters).
Kris Dinnison has spent nearly two decades as a teacher and librarian. Nowadays, she helps run the retail and café businesses she owns with her husband, hikes, and spins classic vinyl. This is her debut YA novel. She lives in Spokane, Washington.
Sharon M. Draper is a New York Times bestselling author who has received the Coretta Scott King Award for both Copper Sun and Forged by Fire. Her Out of My Mind has won multiple awards and has been a New York Times bestseller for more than a year. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years and was named National Teacher of the Year.
Matt de la Peña is the author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels: Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You and The Living. He’s also the author of the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific where he attended school on a full basketball scholarship. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.
Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome are a husband-wife team who have collaborated on many award-winning picture books for children. These include Satchel Paige, which was an ALA Best Book for Children and a Booklist Top Ten Sports Book for Youth, and Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass, which received starred reviews in Booklist and School Library Journal. The Quilt Alphabet was praised as “a blue-ribbon ABC book that combines bright, folksy oil paintings and lilting riddle-poems” in a starred review in Publishers Weekly and called “a feast for the eyes” in School Library Journal.
JaNay Brown-Wood dreams big. Ever since she was a little girl, she’s wanted to become a published author. Her determination has paid off. Imani’s Moon is her first book for children. JaNay is also a professor of early childhood education. She lives in California.
Karen English is a Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning author who lives in Los Angeles, California. Her books have been praised for their accessible writing, authentic characters, and satisfying story lines. Karen is a retired elementary school teacher, and she wrote these stories with her students in mind.
Desirae Foston is a designer and artist based in Brooklyn, NY.
Rachel Isadora received a Caldecott Honor for Ben’s Trumpet, and has written and illustrated numerous other books for children, including Bea at Ballet, Jake at Gymnastics, Say Hello!, Peekaboo Bedtime, the Lili at Ballet series, and several classic tales set in Africa (including Old Mikamba Had a Farm, There was a Tree, The Night Before Christmas, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and The Princess and the Pea). She lives in New York City.
Kekla Magoon is an award-winning author of many young adult novels, including The Rock and the River, for which she received the 2010 Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Kekla Magoon lives in New York City.
Meg Medina is the author of The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind and the picture book Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Her most recent young adult novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, is the winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Jason Reynolds is crazy. About stories. After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where you can often find him walking the four blocks from the train to his apartment talking to himself. Well, not really talking to himself, but just repeating character names and plot lines he thought of on the train, over and over again, because he’s afraid he’ll forget it all before he gets home. He is the author of the critically acclaimed When I Was the Greatest and The Boy in the Black Suit.
Kashmira Sheth was four years old at the first Indian wedding she remembers, and she still cherishes the memory of the festivities in her grandparents’ house. Since then she has attended many weddings but, unlike Sona, has never successfully stolen a groom’s shoes. She is the author of many acclaimed books, including Tiger in My Soup, My Dadima Wears a Sari, and Monsoon Afternoon. Sheth teaches at Pine Manor College, in their Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program.
Conrad J. Storad is an award-winning author and editor of more than 50 science and nature books for children, Conrad J. Storad is committed to helping students better understand and appreciate the natural world. Conrad visits many schools to teach and entertain children and is now approaching his visit with his millionth student. In 2006, Don’t Call Me Pig! (A Javelina Story) was selected by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to promote reading, and more than 93,000 first-graders received a special edition copy. In 2012, Storad’s Arizona Way Out West & Witty, coauthored with Lynda Exley, was selected to represent Arizona as part of the “52 Great Reads” program run annually at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Eric Velasquez was born in Spanish Harlem in New York City. The awards he has won include a Pura Belpré and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award. He lives in New York State with his family.
Laura Rose Wagner has a PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She lived in Port-au-Prince from 2009 to 2012, and survived the earthquake. She travels to Haiti often, and founded a creative writing group for young people there.
Brenda Woods was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in southern California, and attended California State University, Northridge. She is the award-winning author of several books for young readers: Coretta Scott King Honor winner The Red Rose Box, The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond, Saint Louis Armstrong Beach, Voya Top Shelf Fiction selection Emako Blue, My Name is Sally Little Song, and A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her numerous awards and honors include the Judy Lopez Memorial Award, FOCAL award, Pen Center USA’s Literary Award finalist, IRA Children’s Choice Young Adult Fiction Award, and ALA Quick Pick. She lives in the Los Angeles area.
Natasha Yim was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At ten, her family moved to Hong Kong, where Natasha attended a very Harry Potter-esque secondary school. This is where she was turned on to writing. She moved to the United States to attend college where she studied Psychology and English Literature. Natasha is the author of Sacajawea of the Shoshone, Cixi: “The Dragon Empress”, and Otto’s Rainy Day. She lives in Ukiah, California.
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The post Diversity Authors and Illustrations Guest Posting on the Multicultural Children’s Book Day Blog!! appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.
The prep of the upcoming (1/27/15) Multicultural Children’s Book day is humming right along! In case you’ve missed all the details, Mia Wenjen from
Pragmatic Mom and I are teaming up once again to bring awareness and shine the spotlight on all of the amazing multicultural children’s books that are available to readers, parents, teachers and libraries.
Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and I are on a mission to change that; it’s a mission to raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, and to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. This event also provides an excellent way for us to compile a list of book titles and blog reviews for everyone to use to expand their bookshelves.
This is an official call out to all multicultural children’s book authors! There are huge benefits for authors who participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day by either sponsoring the event, or donating copies of their books to our vast pool of children’s book review bloggers who are standing by and ready to review books all month long leading up to the event. For those authors who are interested in purchasing an Author Sponsorship here are some benefits and perks:
- Mia and I are providing an “in” with their readership and demographic and will be promoting sponsors via name mention, products or service in a new and fresh way. These P.R methods include guest blogging, social media and press releases; sponsors will be mentioned in all P.R methods whenever possible. We will be doing countless blog posts on the new MCCBD site before and during the event and all sponsors will be mentioned as part of the posts as well.
- We are collaborating with The Children’s Book Council and First Book in various ways and will be tapping into their reach and readership to spread the word about the 1/27/15 event.
- For MCCBD 2015 we will also be implementing advanced tracking and social media analytics for more defined information and feedback for our sponsors. For our 2015 event, Multicultural Children’s Book Day site has a brand new, stand-alone site allowing the MCCBD Team to give deeper details and easier to find information about our sponsors, our mission and other valuable information for multicultural book lovers. All sponsors will be listed either on the sidebar of the site, or on a specific Sponsor page. You can view the new site HERE.
- Another effective way for you to participate as an author is to donate review copies of your multicultural children’s book to our pool of review bloggers. NOTE: All books provided to our review bloggers for the event need to be approved by our Book Review Panel. For a more specific description of a “multicultural children’s book,” go HERE.
- Currently we have over 70 established bloggers who will be matched with authors and publishers to provide a review of your book. All book review blog posts will be compiled the day of the event in a huge Linky Party that doubles as a reading list for parents, teachers, caregivers and libraries that can be viewed and pulled from all year long.
Providing copies of your multicultural book to be reviewed is an excellent way to gain visibility and recognition for your work! If you are an author with a multicultural children’s book to share, we want to hear from you! Email MCCBD Project Manager Becky F. at Becky (at) AudreyPress (dot) com to get the ball rolling. We hope to hear from you soon!
NOW…..ON TO THE BLOGGERS!
We are still very interested in connecting with established bloggers who are willing to review books for the MCCBD event. Sign-up will be closing very soon (November 30th) so we can begin the matching process and start getting books into the hands of reviewers the first week of December. To view more details or sign up to be one of our children’s book reviewers, go HERE.
Thank you for your continued support of this important event!
The post Calling All Bloggers and Children’s Book Authors! MCCBD Needs YOU! appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
This week I am participating in the Children’s Author Blog Hop. I was invited by Holly Schindler – a wonderful writer of such YA titles as PLAYING HURT, and A BLUE SO DARK. Her MG is due out early next year and is titled THE JUNCTION BETWEEN SUNSHINE AND LUCKY. http://www.hollyschindler.com I do a monthly post on her middle grade blog SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE, along with many other amazing and talented writers. www.smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com.
To participate, each author answers four questions and then invites three other children’s authors to participate. Blog hops are a great way for authors and readers to connect.
See more about the authors I invited below.
Here are my answers to the questions:
- What are you currently working on? I am working on a contemporary Middle Grade titled THE ART OF IMPERFECTION. It’s about a fourteen year old boy determined to re-invent himself and win over the most popular girl in eighth grade before he enters his freshman year. He takes on a summer job painting his great-aunts house and meets a whole cast of characters – including a fourteen year old girl – who shake up those plans, his values and his definition of family.
- How does it differ from other works in the genre? It allows the main character to interact with each person he meets – from adults to teens and younger kids – and has him take away something of value from each of those encounters. Even when he was convinced they had nothing to offer. And, there are NO vampires or werewolves. Although there is a character who believes she was once a cat.
- Why do you write what you do? Middle Grade fiction seems to have chosen me. I’ve tried writing picture books and novels for Young Adults but never seem to be able to get the “voice” right. My characters, and the way they tell their story, turns me into a twelve year old, no matter how much I try to resist.
- What is the hardest part about writing? For me the hardest part of writing is the middle. I have no problem starting a story, and I usually know where and how I want it to end. I hit the wall about two thirds of the way through and am convinced I’ll never get over the wall to the finish line.
Now here are three fellow writers with some amazing talents and credentials.
TARA LAZAR’S blog WRITING FOR KIDS (WHILE RAISING THEM) is filled with information for children’s book writers. Her post “500 Things Kids Like” is a must if you’re trying to develop authentic characters that ring true. She also hosts the annual PiBoIdMo, an event that challenges picture book writers to come up with an idea, story or character everyday for a month, so that at the end, there may be some gems to turn into books. Tara Lazar recently published her first PB titled THE MONSTORE with Simon and Schuster. Another PB titled I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK is due out in 2014. Learn more about Tara at: http://taralazar.wordpress.com
ROBIN NEWMAN writes a blog, “LET’S TALK BOOKS,” www.robinnewmanbooks.wordpress.com, covering kid lit, where she interviews authors and illustrators of books for all ages. She recently sold THE CASE OF THE MISSING CARROT CAKE, the first book in the WILCOX AND GRISWOLD MYSTERY SERIES to CRESTON BOOKS (release date TBD), www.crestonbooks.com. She writes picture books, chapter books and more! She would love to have coffee with the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs! You can follow Robin on Twitter @robinnewmanbooks and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/RobinNewmanBooks/339179099505049
KATHY TEMEAN ran the New Jersey Chapter of the SCBWI for ten years as Regional Advisor. She is the author/ illustrator of Horseplay and many magazine articles and artwork. She also runs her own web design company www.temeanconsulting.com Her blog WRITING AND ILLUSTRATING offers valuable tips on everything you need to know about writing for children. She also conducts interviews with agents, editors, authors and illustrators in the field and twice a year conducts writing workshops. When she finds the time, she is busy working on her own MG and YA novels and illustrating children’s books. She just finished a project illustrating a book about Yogi Berra that will be out later this year. Check out her blog at: www.kathytemean.wordpress.com
Picture Book Month is an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books. Founder, Dianne de Las Casas (author & storyteller) and Co-Founders, Katie Davis (author/illustrator), Elizabeth O. Dulemba (author/illustrator), Tara Lazar (author), and Wendy Martin (author/illustrator), are putting together their worldwide connections to make this happen.
In October 2010 The New York Times published an article, “Picture Books No Longer A Staple for Children.” The controversial article incited a barrage of responses from the children’s book industry, many in defense of the venerable picture book. In addition, the digital age has ushered in an unprecedented amount of ebooks and, with devices like the iPad, the color Nook, and the Kindle Fire, picture books are being converted to the digital format. In this digital age where people are predicting the coming death of print books, picture books (the print kind) need love. And the world needs picture books. There’s nothing like the physical page turn of a beautifully crafted picture book.
Each day during November picture book authors have contributed a short essay on Why Picture Books Are So Important. The Picture Book Month website also features links to picture book resources, authors, illustrators, and kidlit book bloggers. So stop by and check out the essays, and all the rest of the material (including calendars and celebration ideas and much more) for Picture Book Month at www(dot)picturebookmonth(dot)com. Join the celebration and party with a picture book!
My daughter attended her annual book fair at school this week. Among the books she wanted me to buy for her was Clarice Bean, That’s Me by Lauren Child. I was happy to do so, since Lauren Child is one of my heros.
Best known for creating the hilarious Charlie and Lola in addition to the Clarice Bean series, Lauren Child is an award-winning author and illustrator from England. Her body of work includes many other equally funny and creative books that I adore, such as her brilliant retelling of The Princess and the Pea and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She uses mixed media, combining endearing child-like sketches with collage and photos in a totally unique yet instantly recognizable style. As Lola might say, “I am an absolutely hugely enormous and big fan.”
So when I opened up Clarice Bean, That’s Me, I was particularly struck – and inspired – by the inside flap copy.
For anyone who ever loses faith that they might yet get their children’s book published one day, here’s a little gift from Lauren Child (in as close to her font/style as I could capture):
A word or two from Lauren Child about this actual Clarice Bean book…
This book was sent to lots of PUBLISHERS
Some people liked the words
Some people liked the pictures
Not many people liked them both together
Hardly anyone liked the t y p e
A few thought it shouldn’t be written from a child’s point of view
No one thought it would work as a book
the way it was
I DIDN’T WANT TO CHANGE IT
I waited for five years
I STARTED MAKING LAMPSHADES
I MIXED PAINTS FOR AN ARTIST
I BECAME A RECEPTIONIST
NOTHING happened. . .
F i n a l l y I got a letter
It said, Yes
I still have it
It was one of the most exciting things
that has ever happened to me
0 Comments on Something Utterly Inspiring as of 1/1/1900
I’m putting the final touches on School Visit Wizard, a step-by-step, customizable kit to help authors book, plan and deliver A+ author visits in schools.
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Thanks Darlene!
[…] Meet Some Blog Hop Authors […]
Thanks for playing along, Darlene! Can’t wait to get to know more about the authors you’ve tagged…
I’m a (ha, ha, ha) “author.” I do my best to write what I can. And writing in the voice of a twelve-year old isn’t bad (after all, I am one). I like writing, reading, and watching mysteries, fantasy, and anything that appeals to me. Thanks for posting on your work and others’. Please read my ideas (on my blog), maybe you could give me some good advice! Thanks again.:-)