We couldn’t be more proud of our amazing clients. They’ve racked up awards, starred reviews, and more. Here’s their latest news…
AWARDS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
The ALA Awards were HUGE for our clients! Please hold your applause to the end. We hope you’ll celebrate with us! And a shout-out to all the author and illustrator creators. We want to acknowledge their incredible books too. It takes a village to raise a child and they’re ALL part of that process.- Congratulations to Kwame Alexander whose picture book THE UNDEFEATED was a multiple award-winner. The picture book won the Caldecott Medal with illustrator Kadir Nelson, picked up the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and earned a Newbery Honor.
- Congratulations to Cynthia Leitich Smith for winning The American Indian Youth Literature award for her young adult novel HEARTS UNBROKEN.
- Bravo to Kelly Starling Lyons, whose picture book GOING DOWN HOME WITH DADDY was a Caldecott Honor recipient with illustrator Daniel Minter.
- Bravo to James E. Ransome, whose picture book THE BELL RANG was the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor.
Congratulations to our clients who were awarded in the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Golden Kite Awards!- Kwame Alexander‘s book THE UNDEFEATED was an Honor recipient for Picture Book Text
- Carole Boston Weatherford‘s book THE ROOTS OF RAP: 16 BARS ON THE FOUR PILLARS OF HIP-HOP earned the Golden Kite Honor for Picture Book Illustration with illustrator Frank Morrison
In other awards…
- Kwame Alexander‘s 2019 picture book HOW TO READ A BOOK, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, won the 2020 Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award.
EMMY IN THE KEY OF CODE by Aimee Lucido has been short-listed for the 2019 Northern California ‘Golden ‘Poppy’ Book Awards.
Kelly Starling Lyons and Tami Charles received awards from the Philadelphia City Council for Outstanding Literary Work. Watch this video of them accepting their awards and speaking about the need for diverse books in children’s literature.
BOOK LISTS AND REVIEWS
Baptiste Paul’s debut book THE FIELD will be in the April Scholastic Book Club, and he will be the featured author for the month.
Laura Gehl‘s BABY PALEONTOLOGIST was a Best Book of the Month on Amazon for February (ages 0-2).
Tami Charles’ BECOMING BEATRIZ was selected to the In the Margins – Fiction Recommendation List for 2020! The committee for this award are librarians who work with marginalized youth. BECOMING BEATRIZ as well as Tami’s picture book FREEDOM SOUP also made the Best Of list for CBC Notable Social Studies.
Congratulations to new client Nelly Buchet on the Kirkus starred review of her debut picture book CAT DOG DOG. Kirkus called the book, “A clever, winning read-aloud for modern families.”
Illustrator James E. Ransome‘s FREEDOM BIRD, written by Jerdine Nolen, also received a starred review from Kirkus. The reviewer said the book has “powerful storytelling and immersive art.”
THANKU: POEMS OF GRATITUDE, which was edited by Miranda Paul, was named a 2020 Notable Book from the American Library Association in the “All Ages” category. The book features poems by clients Baptiste Paul, Cynthia Leitich Smith and Liz Garton Scanlon, among others.
APPEARANCES
On Feb. 22, R.W. Alley will be at Ink Fish Books in Warren, Rhode Island. The Paddington Bear illustrator also will appear at the Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona on March 14-15. His Tucson appearance was covered in This Is Tucson.
Clients Dianne White, Kimberly Willis Holt, Javaka Steptoe and Carmen Oliver will speak at the Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Festival in Redlands, Calif., on Feb. 28-29. Approximately 200 librarians, educators, and writers take part in the conference every year.
COVER REVEALS
The creators behind the Caldecott-winning picture book CROWN: ODE TO A FRESH CUT, author Derrick Barnes and illustrator Gordon C. James, have collaborated once again and we’ve got the cover of their new picture book. I AM EVERY GOOD THING, alludes to the book’s evocative celebration of black boyhood, and the cover features a face familiar to Gordon—his son Gabriel. “My son is diagnosed autistic, so to be able to put him on the cover looking so strong and cool and powerful really meant a lot to us—me, my wife, my family. It was a big deal,” Gordon told Publishers Weekly in a cover reveal article.
Congratulations to author/illustrator Don Tate on the cover reveal of his upcoming book SWISH! THE SLAM-DUNKING, ALLY-OOPING, HIGH-FLYING HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS, written by Suzanne Slade. The cover was revealed on Kid Frenzy, where Don talked about the book’s design.
BOOK DEALS
Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul have collaborated on a new picture book, PEACE, which has been bought by Beth Terrill at NorthSouth Books. The concept picture book explores words and actions small and big that foster peace. Estelí Meza, winner of the A la Orilla del Viento, the premier Picture Book Contest Award in Mexico, will illustrate. Publication is set for fall 2021.
Beth Terrill at NorthSouth Books has also acquired Baptiste Paul‘s heartfelt and humorous picture book CLIMB ON, which follows a father and daughter as they hike to the top of a mountain. The book will be illustrated by the winner of the inaugural We Need Diverse Books Illustration Mentorship Award, Jacqueline Alcántara. The author and illustrator also collaborated on Baptiste’s debut picture book THE FIELD, which was released in 2018. Publication for CLIMB ON is set for spring 2022.
OTHER NEWS
Donna Gephart gets to tell the story behind the story in her author’s note at the end of ABBY, TRIED AND TRUE, which will be released on Oct. 6 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. It took Donna 17 years to figure out how to tell this story. The fabulous illustrator for the book is Svetla Radivoeva.
Over winter break, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul went on writer residency with their family and wrote poems. Both Miranda and her 10-year-old son Amani had their poems selected for the 2020 Fireside Coffeehouse Series. They will read their poems at the Words on Fire event Friday, Feb. 29, at 7 pm in the Door County Auditorium in Fish Creek, Wisconsin.