February Book Club Selections

Lower Elementary:



Who Will I Be Lord? by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by Sean Qualls
















First Pooch: The Obamas Pick a Pet by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Amy Bates













Upper Elementary:


Coretta by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson



Praise for Coretta:




"Poet and painter have joined forces to offer an indelible, emotional expression of the strength, beauty, and joy of one woman's character."


-- starred review, Booklist



Michelle by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by AG Ford

Virtual Book Club

For the past few years, I’ve facilitated book clubs that celebrate black children's book creators of today and the past. Sometimes, I get emails from parents, community group leaders and teachers asking me to recommend good books about children of color. So this year, I decided to take my virtual book club -- something I've featured on my website for a while -- to another level.

Every other month, I'll post four picture book titles -- two appropriate for preschool/young elementary readers and two for upper elementary readers. I may include craft ideas and other ways to bring the books to life in your home, classroom and library. The books will be written and/or illustrated by African-American authors and illustrators.

Please join us in reading these books and saluting the wonderful people who created them. If you enjoy a particular selection, please post a review on Amazon.com. Your feedback may help keep a good book in print. And please share your child's thoughts about the books here on my blog or on my FaceBook page. Let me know if you like the virtual book club idea too. That way, I'll know if this is something that's useful to you and your family.

A writing friend, Jeannine Montgomery, is starting a book club dedicated to boys. Go Jeannine! So I'll post a link to what she's doing too.

Also, to find more great reads about African-American children and teens, please check out The Brown Bookshelf, a site created by a team of black authors and illustrators dedicated to raising awareness of African-American children’s literature. I'm honored to be part of that group.

Finally, I created a few Listmania lists on Amazon.com that offer more wonderful books to consider sharing with young people you love:

Kelly’s Favorite Picture Books
Board & Early Picture Books Featuring African-American Children
Picture Books Featuring African-American Boys

Here’s to celebrating children’s literature every day.

Happy Reading!

Kelly

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everybody!

Lots of great things happening. One of my forthcoming picture books is closer to publication. The illustrator is working on sketches. Can't wait to see them.

Took a mediabistro YA/MG class taught by Erica Sussman of HarperCollins. Really demanding, but I highly recommend it! My middle grade novel-in-progress is so much further along.

Claiming joy and peace in 2010 and wishing it for all of you.

Kelly's YouTube Channel

I never knew there was such a rich literary community on YouTube. I created a channel with some of my favorite book trailers and author interviews. I even saw some by my writing friends. Too cool.

Here's my channel:

Kelly's YouTube Channel

Happy Viewing!

Drum Roll Please . . .

Everyone,

Thank you so much for the great feedback on my trailer for One Million Men and Me. I'm happy to present the final version. Please let me know what you think.

Here's the trailer. Click the arrow to view:

I also created some free printables for the book:

Word Scramble

Bookmarks

Coloring Page

Please share with a child you know. Thank you so much for your support.

One Million Men and Me Trailer

Hey Everyone,

I've been so inspired by the wonderful children's book trailers on the Web that I decided to try my own. I used Microsoft MovieMaker and royalty-free music I found online. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback before making it live.

Here's the link. Click the arrow to view:

Thanks so much for your support.

12 Brown Boys

We hear a lot about the need to get more boys reading. According to a 2000 study cited by the National Center for Education Statistics, boys lagged behind girls in reading performance across all age groups. Experts say the reading gap for African-American and Latino young men is even more pronounced. There are lots of factors that contribute to this problem. But here are two that seem solvable — Some boys find books boring and have trouble connecting with the stories. How can we turn that around? Give young men books that reflect their interests and lives.

12 Brown Boys (Just Us Books, 2008), the children’s book debut of best-selling urban lit novelist Omar Tyree, does that in a meaningful way. In this short story collection for middle-graders, Tyree explores the lives of a memorable cast of tween brown boys. His characters, with names like Red-Head Mike, Chestnut and Oneal, come from different family situations and backgrounds. They face different trials. They show diversity in their interests and beliefs. But they’re united in being young men with frailties and flaws, strengths and talents. Tyree succeeds in creating distinct personalities with complex lives.

He opens the book with the throw-back story of a boy named Michael who loves Heavy D and Rakim and looks up to an older teen named Cool Dave. Then, Michael discovers what Dave does for a living and things get more complicated. Tyree shows us a boy who struggles with reading in public until his dad teaches him a trick he used as a child. There’s a young artist and musician who inspires his friend. There’s an oldest son who stands up when he’s needed most. In Tyree’s book, we travel from Jamaica to Detroit, from Washington, D.C. to Charlotte and a camp in the Poconos to meet boys who stick up for their beliefs, have fun their own way, weather challenging moments and unfamiliar experiences to become their best selves.

12 Brown Boys is a needed book that gives African-American boys an important incentive to read – reflections of themselves.

Here is a Book Links article that offers more titles that celebrate African-American boys:
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/publishing/booklinks/resources/affirmingafricanamericanboys.pdf