Happy New Year!

My first picture book, One Million Men and Me, debuted in October. What a blessing. I've attended conferences and festivals, visited schools and libraries. I am so grateful for this chance to celebrate a father-daughter relationship and let a new generation know about the beauty of the Million Man March. Thank you Just Us Books and illustrator Peter Ambush for making my dream come true!

Here are some of last year's highlights:

Honors and Reviews:

The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) selected One Million Men and Me for the forthcoming edition of CCBC Choices, its annual best-of-the-year list. Choices features annotated entries of books for children and teens recommended by CCBC staff. CCBC Choices 2008 will be available in March. For more about CCBC, please visit:

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/


Disilgold Soul Magazine's YOUNITY Guild Awards honored me with the Most Outstanding Debut Children's Book Author of the Year title.

One Million Men and Me also won good reviews. You can check them out at:

http://www.kellystarlinglyons.com/work2.htm

Best Experiences:

The end of every year brings dozens of best lists: best movies, best books, best songs. I'd like to offer another a different kind of list. Here are my best author experiences of 2007 -- moments that moved me, made me puff with pride and raise my hands in joy.

Best Goosebump Moment
My daughter and I visited a local Barnes & Noble searching a new book. We browsed the picture book section and saw five copies of my book! I turned one face out and smiled all the way home. There's nothing like that thrill.

Best Event

I've admired the Multicultural Children's Book Festival at the Kennedy Center http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/specialevents/bookfestival/ since I first heard about it. I dreamed of the day I would be there too. That happened last year! I met veterans like Tonya Bolden, Christopher Myers, Jerdine Nolen, Lulu Delacre. I watched as scores of people of different cultures and backgrounds streamed around to celebrate literature reflecting children of color. I had the chance to sign copies of One Million Men and Me in the city where it happened.


Here are some more stand-out moments:


I met twin girls whose dad pushed them in a stroller around the Million Man March when they were 4-month-old infants.


A father looked at the cover with my character, Nia, on her dads's shoulders and remembered carrying his own daughter around the March that way.


Women proudly told me they took their sons to the March or cheered their husbands as they went.


Men smiled as they flipped through the pages and said it took them back to that historic event.


Two boys who won gift certificates from their school for earning good grades used them to buy copies of my book. Doesn't get much better than that :).


Best Letters


Ms. Starling Lyons,

thank you for the book. I like the part when they prayed together that might stop the fighting around here.

Thanks, Tayjah

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I love your book, One Million Men and Me. I like it when it says: I am a Man. I am one in a million. That was my favorite part.

Kayla

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Dear Ms. Starlings,

I love your book One Million Men and Me. It reminds me of a lot of men in my family. It's a very, very, very nice book. Thank you for coming to my school.

Your friend,
Chalayia

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These are just a few of the wonderful letters students have sent me. Thanks so much to every child who wrote me about One Million Men and Me. I cherish and save every note.

Best of the Best

At bedtime, my husband and I take turns reading our daughter stories. She goes over to her bookshelf and chooses her favorite. Then, we take off on a reading adventure together. One night, she handed me my book. I smiled and asked her if she was sure she wanted me to read it to her again. She nodded her head and said: "Yes, mama, it's my favorite because you wrote it."

Now, that I've shared some of my blessings, it's off to 2008. Can you believe it's already Jan. 4, whew. I better get writing :).

My book goals for this year are to keep spreading the word about One Million Men and Me, land another picture book deal and start planning promotion for my forthcoming picture book with Penguin/GP Putnam's Sons. (I'm really excited about this story. It was inspired by researching my family tree and explores an important time in black history. Look for more details later this year.)

I also want to make more time to read. During the Christmas holiday, I read so many great stories -- The Old African by Julius Lester, 47 by Walter Mosley, the Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Harrington. Then, I picked up a powerful middle-grade novel by Sharon Bell Mathis called Listen for the Fig Tree. I couldn't put it down. That story wove a spell around me that still lingers. I'll post a review soon.

In the meantime, I wish you and your family peace, joy and abundant blessings in 2008. Thank you for your kindness and support.