With awards, original mugs and new books, we’re celebrating our talented, hard-working clients. Here’s what they’ve been up to…
NEW BOOKS
Happy Book Birthday to Mitali Perkins and her new young adult novel FORWARD ME BACK TO YOU, which was released April 2. Here’s the description from publisher Farrar, Strauss and Giroux:
“Katina King is the reigning teen jujitsu champion of Northern California, but she’s having trouble fighting off the secrets in her past. Robin Thornton was adopted from an orphanage in India and is reluctant to take on his future. If he can’t find his roots, how can he possibly plan ahead?
“Robin and Kat meet in the most unlikely of places—a summer service trip to Kolkata to work with survivors of human trafficking. As bonds build between the travelmates, Robin and Kat discover that justice and healing are tangled, like the pain of their pasts and the hope for their futures. You can’t rewind life; sometimes you just have to push play.”
The novel received a starred review in Shelf Awareness!
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
Congratulations to Don Tate who designed the beautiful 2019 commemorative mug for the Texas Library Association’s Annual Conference. Since the event was located in Austin this year, the mug features images from the state’s capital while it celebrates the city’s wonderful literary community.
Bank Street’s Best Books of the Year have been named for 2019, and we’re delighted to see our clients’ books being recognized.
- For ages under 5: VINCENT COMES HOME, written and illustrated by Jessixa Bagley and Aaron Bagley.
- For ages 5-9: Liz Garton Scanlon‘s DEAR SUBSTITUTE, co-written with Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Chris Raschka, is in the Today category, while GAME CHANGES: THE STORY OF VENUS AND SERENA WILLIAMS written by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by James E. Ransome is in the Sports category.
- For ages 9-12: HOW SWEET THE SOUND: THE STORY OF AMAZING GRACE written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Frank Morrison is in the Arts category, and NO SMALL POTATOES: JUNIUS G. GROVES AND HIS KINGDOM IN KANSAS, written by Tonya Bolden and illustrated by Don Tate is in the Biography and Memoir category.
- For ages 12-14: Tami Charles’ LIKE VANESSA and Kwame Alexander‘s REBOUND in the CROSSOVER series have been named in the Coming of Age category. Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s HEARTS UNBROKEN have been selected in the Today category.
- For ages 14 and older: FRESH INK: AN ANTHOLOGY, edited by Lamar Giles, is in the Anthologies and Collections category and SWING by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess is in the Coming of Age category.
Illustrator Gordon C. James and author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson received a wonderful review of their new picture book LET ‘ER BUCK in Unpacking the POWER of Picture Books. Here’s a sneak peek: “This book deserves attention for the vivid depiction of a dramatic time and place, for the page-turning tension of the culminating events, and for the densely saturated colors and action-packed scenes that leap from the pages like a 3-D movie. Only better.”
Ammi-Joan Paquette’s middle grade novel THE TRAIN OF LOST THINGS has been unanimously selected to be one of the nominees for Rhode Island Children’s Book Award 2020.
Kwame Alexander‘s picture book THE UNDEFEATED, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, is on the New York Times Best Seller List.
APPEARANCES
Paddington Bear illustrator R.W. “Bob” Alley will be at the Providence Book Festival in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, April 27. R.W. Alley was featured as the “Author of the Month” with Elephant Books, where he speaks to his process of writing and illustrating his own books, including CLARK IN THE DEEP SEA.
Authors Caroline Star Rose, Kwame Alexander and Vaunda Micheaux Nelson caught up with each other at Kwame’s book tour stop in New Mexico. Sponsored by the University of New Mexico Creative Writing Department and Bookworks, Kwame was speaking about his newest picture book, THE UNDEFEATED, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, as well as Kwame’s novels CROSSOVER and BOOKED, which were recently released on paperback. The event was part of a 20-plus city tour across the country throughout April.
Tami Charles will present at the free annual African American Children’s Book Fair, Saturday, May 11, at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Austin’s Anti-Defamation League along with popular independent bookstore Bookpeople will host Mitali Perkins on Thursday, April 25, 5:00pm-6:30pm, for a “Civil Rights/No Place for Hate Book Talk.” Mitali will discuss her new young adult novel FORWARD ME BACK TO YOU, human trafficking, identity and advocacy.
Carmen Oliver will launch her new non-fiction picture book A VOICE FOR THE SPIRIT BEARS: HOW ONE BOY INSPIRED MILLIONS TO SAVE A RARE ANIMAL, illustrated by Katy Dockrill, in a joint event at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, May 11, at 2pm. Carmen will celebrate along with author Debbie Gonzales and her non-fiction picture book GIRLS WITH GUTS: THE ROAD TO BREAKING BARRIERS AND BASHING RECORDS, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon.
Authors Carmen Oliver and Lesa Cline-Ransome participated in Van’s Game of Games at the Texas Library Association Conference in Austin, Texas, this month. Their team didn’t go home with the Vantastic Trophy of Knowledge but a lot of laughs were had by librarians and participating authors and illustrators.
Authors Lamar Giles and Kwame Alexander were on tour the first week of April with their books and other Versify authors and got to visit fellow author Jeff Kinney’s book store An Unlikely Story in Plainsfield, Massachusetts.
Clients Don Tate and Bethany Hegedus will be featured authors at the Shreve Memorial Library Children’s Book Festival at the Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Louisiana, 10am-4pm on May 4. Admission is free.