A huge and humble THANK YOU goes out today to the children of West Virginia for making BIRD this year’s winner of the West Virginia Children’s Choice Book Award! What a tremendous honor. BIRD was up against some big names this year. You can see the entire nominee list here. As with other state book … Read more
I finally wrapped my second book, A PLACE WHERE HURRICANES HAPPEN by Renee Watson. It debuts this June with Random House. In the meantime, I will be making three appearances in November. On November 12th, the Cleveland Public Library is graciously hosting an exhibition of the original artwork for OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR, which was … Read more
Hey Baltimore! Come out this Sunday to see yours truly and Zetta Elliott at the 14th annual Baltimore Book Festival. We will be presenting BIRD, Sunday, September 27th at 1:00PM. Look for us at the Children’s Bookstore Stage. Now, to find that top hat and cane….
The 40th Coretta Scott King Award Ceremony was more than I hoped it would be. I shared the stage with some of my favorite artists and authors and was uplifted by librarians from across the country. I was especially excited to see a lot of familiar faces from the Brooklyn Public Library and the New … Read more
Is your after school program being cut? A great alternative for kids who are looking for a place to be after-hours is your local library! Zetta and I popped in at the Brooklyn Public Library for a Monday afternoon book club meeting where BIRD was the featured book. The kids didn’t know we were coming … Read more
The celebration has come and gone. We had a great turn out at the NYPL last night. My friends and family came out strong to share in my moment. Many thanks go to all committee members, the New York Public Library, and to the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation for such a wonderful honor. For those … Read more
Go here for a great interview with School Library Journal. Funny, how the world brings us all together. I met Rocco Staino last year on my way back from ALA. Serendipity would have it that he was a writer for SLJ, and ended up doing a feature on me today at the School Library Journal … Read more
Great news, BIRD has been selected as a finalist for The Brown Bookshelf’s 28 Days Later Contest. Hurray! Here is an excerpt from the letter sent to Zetta Elliott announcing the great news: 28 Days Later is our much-anticipated initiative that will celebrate vanguard Black children’s book authors and emerging and established African-American authors who … Read more
Zetta and I will be signing copies of BIRD in Atlanta on December 15th at Frederick Douglass High School. If you have unsigned copies already, please feel free to bring them! If you haven’t purchased a copy and would like to, we will have books available for sale.
Kirkus Reviews has named BIRD one it’s best books of 2008. What an honor! Special thanks to Erika Rohrback for the interview and feature. You can download the pdf and read the feature in it’s entirety here: