Author Showcase

By Donna M. McDine, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: February 2, 2012

 A Story of Friendship and Courage

A young boy befriends an abused slave

and defies his father to help his new friend attain freedom

(TAPPAN, NEW YORK) – The Golden Pathway is a richly illustrated work of historical fiction that allows children to comprehend the horror of slavery as well as the courage of the people who risked their lives to help slaves escape via the Underground Railroad. Told from a child’s perspective, the story begins with David, who is raised in a hostile environment where abuse occurs daily. David attempts to break the mold and befriends the slave, Jenkins, owned by his Pa. Fighting against extraordinary times and beliefs, David attempts to lead Jenkins to freedom with no regard for his own safety and possible consequences dealt out by his Pa.

Additional resources at the end of the book include a glossary of the code words used and a list of websites with information about the Underground Railroad.

About the author: Donna McDine is an award-winning children’s author, with Honorable Mentions in the 77th and 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competitions. Her stories have been published in many print and online publications and her interest in American History resulted in writing and publishing The Golden Pathway. Donna has two more books under contract with Guardian Angel Publishing, The Hockey Agony and Powder Monkey. Learn more at www.donnamcdine.com.

What they’re saying about The Golden Pathway:

“Once children have read about David and the part he played in the Underground Railroad, they’ll be eager to find other stories to enhance what they’ve learned in The Golden Pathway.”

~ Beverly Stowe McClure, author of Rebel in Blue Jeans, Just Breeze, and Caves, Cannons, and Crinolines

Title: The Golden Pathway

Author: Donna M. McDine

Genre: Children 8-12/Historical Fiction

ISBN: 978-1-61633-081-1 paperback; 978-1-61633-082-8 ebook

Publication Date: August 2010

Pages: 26

Price: $9.95 paperback; $5.00 ebook

Publisher: Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Website: http://www.donnamcdine.com

The Author Showcase is a place for authors and illustrators to gain visibility for their works. This article was provided by the author. Learn more …

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: February 1, 2012

Enter to win one of 2 signed copies of Sharing, Getting Along, and Taking Turns by Dianne Branch and  illustrator Kathy Kerber.

Siblings and sharing? That’s a tough one! Sydney and Logan are up for the challenge.

Giveaway begins February 1, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends February 29, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

Reading level: Ages 4 and up

Paperback: 24 pages

Book overview: Sydney and Logan must learn how to share, get along and take turns with each other. They face challenges like most siblings, but find out how they work them out.

About Dianne Branch: Guided almost entirely by her children’s real voices and experiences, her books bring an enjoyable authenticity to young readers that is easy to relate to and understand. Several additional titles will be released in the near future.

Dianne, her two children, and her husband reside in Maryland.

Visit: http://dbchildrenbooks.com

How to enter:

• Fill out the required fields below

• Maximum entries: Three (3)

Giveaway Rules:

• Shipping Guidelines: This book giveaway is open to all participants.
• Giveaway begins February 1, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends February 29, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST, when all entries must be received. No purchase necessary. See official rules for details. View our privacy policy.

Sponsored by DB Children Books.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: February 3, 2012

Enter to win one of 3 book packages that include Twilight Tales: A Collection of Chilling Poems and Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland by author J.T. Holden.

Each book comes with 2 White Rabbit bookmarks & 2 Twilight Tales bookmarks!

Giveaway begins January 31, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends February 28, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

Twilight Tales: A Collection of Chilling Poems

Reading level: Ages 11 and up

Paperback: 114 pages

Bookmark

Book overview: From the critically acclaimed author of Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland comes a chilling collection of rhyming poetry perfect for Halloween . . . or any other dark and spooky night.

From the creepy jingles of Shadows in the Nursery and the eerie angst of The Darkening ’Tweens to the malevolently poetic odes of Medieval Maladies and the sweeping chills of The Epic Tales—all perfectly capped off by the haunting afters of Two for the Road—J.T. Holden’s Twilight Tales offers a deliciously wicked mix of frightening fare!

Visit: http://kurobooks.com

Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland

Reading Level: Ages 10 and up

Hardcover: 112 pages 

Book overview: Have you ever wondered…

Who really stole the Queen’s tarts? Whatever did become of the Walrus & the Carpenter after their nefarious jot down the briny beach with the little Oysters? Is there truly any sense to be found in nonsense at all?

Bookmark

Come follow Alice down the rabbit-hole once again as Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic is reimagined through the lyrical language of Wonderland…where a Caterpillar dispenses an indelible lesson, a Cat offers safe haven and  (fairly) sound advice, and a Hatter and Hare throw a mad tea party before matching wits at the trial of the century!

Visit: http://www.candleshoebooks.com

How to enter:

• Fill out the required fields below

• Maximum entries: Three (3)

Giveaway Rules:

• Shipping Guidelines: This book giveaway is open to all participants.
• Giveaway begins January 31, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends February 28, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST, when all entries must be received. No purchase necessary. See official rules for details. View our privacy policy.

Sponsored by Kuro Books.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 30, 2012

Marla Frazee

Marla Frazee is the award-winning author and illustrator of many celebrated bestselling books including The Seven Silly Eaters, Stars, The Boss Baby, Roller Coaster, and the Clementine series. Her acclaimed books All the World and A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever received the Caldecott Honor Award. She lives in southern California with her husband and three sons, where she works in a backyard studio under an avocado tree. I’m willing to bet she makes some crazy delicious guacamole.

Nicki Richesin: You knew from a very young age that you wanted to become a children’s book illustrator. It must have felt incredibly gratifying when A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever won the Caldecott Honor Award. How does it feel now looking back on your youth and realizing your single-minded determination and drive has helped you achieve your goal?

Marla Frazee: You mean aside from making me feel old? Well, I guess I had determination and drive to some extent, but when I compare my growing up years to my children’s growing up years, I honestly feel like I was a slacker! I just loved children’s books, and I loved drawing and reading and writing stuff, and I never stopped loving all of that. I did get very serious in college – I attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the program was so grueling that I hardly retain any memories of that time because I was so sleep-deprived.

NR: Your latest book Stars is a gorgeous, magical book about stars and all their practical applications, but it’s also about wishing. Could you tell us a bit about working on this project?

MF: When I first read Mary Lyn Ray’s manuscript, it reminded me of A Hole is to Dig with its seemingly random, childlike sentences and it’s high-wire act of how-is-she-gonna-pull-this-off, oh-my-god-she-just-did! I thought it would be impossible to illustrate, which is why it was so intriguing. I spent many months just thinking about it before I started sketching. It is always fascinating when a book begins to take form, because it goes from being abstract to tangible almost on its own accord. I am often surprised by this, even though I am making it.

I work very closely throughout this process with my editor, Allyn Johnston, VP and Publisher of Beach Lane Books, and we discuss the emergent book at every single stage of its development. I depend on that give-and-take very much.

When it was time to paint the finishes for Stars, I had to make an effort to slow myself down. Some of the paintings in Stars were laborious. Hundreds of layers of watercolor, hundreds of snowflakes, hundreds of mossy stars, etc. But it was calming, too, and I usually need to calm down.

Illustration copyright © 2011 by Marla Frazee

NR: Many of our TCBR readers are aspiring authors and will be encouraged to learn that it took you a long time to break into children’s book publishing. You worked in advertising, educational publishing, and toys and games wherein your artwork was used to communicate messages or teach something, but with children’s books you had to tell a story. You’ve said it took you quite a while to develop this storytelling component in your illustrations. How did you eventually learn to do it?

MF: Yes, it is always helpful to hear a story such as mine and I am more than happy to share it. Even now, I get all prickly when I hear about someone who was offered a contract by the first publisher who saw their work or someone whose first book hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list. I hate those kind of stories. I’m all for delayed gratification.

What I had to do was learn how to tell stories with my pictures. At first I didn’t even know what that meant because I thought I was already doing it. After all these years of drawing stories and trying to teach it, I think it boils down to a pretty simple rule: it takes time to get to know the characters in a book and the world they inhabit. My first sketches are always horrible. Stereotypical. Contrived. Generic. I have to put in the time in order to deepen them and have it all mean something.

NR: In the Clementine books, you wanted your images to hearken back to that era and to look as if they came from that time. You’ve said you’d like your work to appear as “fresh as paint, but to have been around long enough to be a classic.” How do you accomplish this in your illustrations?

MF: This is a hard question! No one has ever asked me that before.

I work on the book’s structure before I know what the content of each illustration will be. I think there was a formality to the classic books I admire and I try to riff on (or out-and-out rip off!) some aspect of that with each book. I never just wing it when it comes to structure – and I’m referring here to the pagination and layout of words and pictures within the picture book form. I plan it out, using the rhythm and meaning of the manuscript to dictate what the relationship between words and pictures should be on the page.

NR: When you’re searching for a manuscript to illustrate, you look for a challenging and exciting project- almost like a puzzle you want to understand.  You work on a book for about a year. At which point in this process, do you usually feel as if you’ve begun to solve the puzzle?

MF: I definitely feel like it is solved when I have a finished sketch dummy, with text and images in place, page turns figured out, content in the pictures established. Before that, it is all in flux. By the time I start to paint, I’ve got a pretty good handle on what is going on with the book. Then it is a matter of executing it. Sometimes there is a lot of trial and error in the beginning of the painting process before I get a sense of the materials and color palette I want to use. But that’s a different and lesser challenge to me, because by that time, the puzzle of the manuscript is solved.

NR: I loved one of your earlier books called Mrs. Biddlebox about a frustrated crank who decides to bake a cake to lift her mood. I was shocked to learn that the author Linda Smith died the same year this book was published. I wondered whether you knew Linda personally and if her death affected your work on Mrs. Biddlebox?

MF: I didn’t get to meet Linda in person, but we spoke on the phone a few times. I called her to see if there was anything she might want to share with me about the book. This is not the way it typically works between authors and illustrators, of course. Usually discussions about the development of a book go through the editor. But I knew that there was a chance Linda would never get to see the finished book and I felt it was important for me to hear what she might want to say. I’m glad I did, because Linda died before I even started the first sketches.

Linda was very professional during our phone conversation and didn’t want to influence my thinking, but she finally shared some of her thoughts. One was that Mrs. Biddlebox should have a pet of some kind, and she suggested a mangy dog or a skinny cat or something. In the initial sketches, I drew Mrs. Biddlebox with a dog and a cat and then a goat and I even tried a raccoon. Finally I settled on the goose. It seemed right. It turns out that Linda used to have a goose named Gabby who would follow her around and bite her through her jeans. Linda’s husband and kids said Linda would have been delighted with Mrs. Biddlebox and her goose. This convinced me that I was taking good care of Linda’s brilliant story, even though she wasn’t alive to see the finished book.

Illustration copyright © 2007 by Marla Frazee

While I illustrated Mrs. Biddlebox, it was often hard to keep from focusing on the sadness of Linda’s death and still honor her wickedly subversive and darkly funny manuscript. It was a balancing act, and maybe because of that it remains one of the most gratifying projects I’ve worked on.

NR: You received the Caldecott Honor Award in 2009 for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. You must be grateful that you created this thank-you card/book at your editor’s suggestion. Did it feel different working on a project that sort of documents your son’s adventures rather than working on a fictional project that another author dreamed up?

MF: Absolutely. My editor (whose son is the other boy in the story) and I were often worried that we were engaged in a vanity project, God forbid. Luckily we never thought this at the same moment or we would’ve bagged it. But one of us was always convincing the other that there was something happening with it that was worth our attention. As the book came into being, the story began to take on a life of its own. Basically, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever is a highly fictionalized account of a very real week. The emotions are all true. The events, well, not so much.

Illustration copyright © 2008 by Marla Frazee

NR: The Seven Silly Eaters is a family favorite in our home. I especially love that Mrs. Peters found the time to play her cello, as if! Could you describe how you first brought the Peters’s family’s adventures to life with your humorous and lively pictures?

MF: Mary Ann Hoberman is brilliant, of course. But the premise of The Seven Silly Eaters – seven children, all of them with weird eating issues, and a mother who is actually attempting to meet their needs – is almost disturbing. The challenge was how to temper it. Linda Zuckerman, my first editor and the editor of The Seven Silly Eaters, thought the way to do that was to illustrate it with animal characters. But I really wanted it to be a human family. I related very strongly with the mother. The story is really about how she is pulled in all directions by the demands of raising children. What parent among us can’t relate to that?

I felt the cello was a way of reinforcing the mother’s identity. She is in danger of seeming like a dishrag. I also pared down the world this family exists in. They have no neighbors, no jobs, no car, no phones, no TV. And I put a dad in the book. Mary Ann Hoberman never mentions a dad in the text. Imagine. A woman having a baby every time there’s a page turn? With no dad in the picture? THAT wouldn’t have worked at all! Of course, he’s implied. But it is amazing how when we look at picture books, it is often hard to remember what story is being told in the words and what story is being told in the pictures. And that’s how it should be – a seamless experience of words and pictures telling a larger story together than could be told by either the words or pictures alone. That is what we aim for every time up to bat.

Illustration copyright © 1997 by Marla Frazee

NR: Your Caldecott Honor Award-winning All the World is truly a masterpiece. It somehow subtly balances the stunning splendor of the world (in your illustrations) with the beautiful simplicity of the poetic text (by Liz Garton Scanlon). I’d love to know more about your creative process on this book.

Illustration copyright © 2009 by Marla Frazee

MF: Liz Garton Scanlon’s manuscript is an incredible mix of expansiveness, intimacy, specificity, poetry, emotion, and universal truth. When Allyn sent it to me seconds after she received it, she didn’t wait in a polite way to see if I would be interested. She demanded that I drop what I was doing and start illustrating this thing called All the World right away! This is not the way we usually talk about new projects. There is typically a lot of hemming and hawing and whatnot. But as soon as I read it, I understood where she was coming from.

All the World was daunting. The challenge here, for me, was how to portray “all the world.” An impossible task. When I am confronted with an illustrative problem that seems insurmountable, it is usually that I am thinking too literally and I need to find the emotional truth of whatever it is I’m trying to figure out. In the case of All the World, I decided that no one – certainly not me – has ever experienced “all the world,” but we all have the sense that we belong here. On good days, at least. When I personally feel like I belong to the world, it is because I am with people I love in places I love. So I decided that would be my solution. I set All the World in a place I love – the central coast region of Southern California – and populated it with people and things that I love. I stopped worrying that I wasn’t representing every place, every person, every possible experience. And I hoped that through this personal expression of mine, others would find their own personal meanings as well.

I do believe this to be the over-arching philosophy behind most of the books I’ve fallen in love with over the years. The more personal and heartfelt the story is for the author and/or illustrator of the book, the more universal the emotion that can be gleaned from it. We see this again and again. But it’s hard to remember. It is so easy to go to a place of, “Well, that’s just about me. No one will care about that.” But actually, if it comes from a true place and is spoken from the heart, people do care. A lot.

Illustration/sketch copyright © 2009 by Marla Frazee

NR: Could you tell us a bit about your upcoming book Boot & Shoe and any other projects you’re working on?

MF: I’ve just put the finishing touches on Boot & Shoe. It’s about two (almost) identical dogs who live in the same house – one spending his days on the front porch and one spending his days on the back porch. This is the perfect arrangement for them, until a squirrel comes along and seriously messes with their heads. The most difficult thing about Boot & Shoe was keeping it light and not bogging it down with extraneous detail. I hope I did that. I think I did, because when I look at the completed book, I wonder why on earth it was so hard to do. It seems like it should’ve been so easy. I think that’s a good sign. I am going to take it that way because otherwise I’m just beating myself up.

Illustration copyright © 2012 by Marla Frazee

Now I’m beginning work on the 6th book in Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine series. There will be 7 altogether. Sara is bringing this series to a close in the most amazing way.

My next project after that is still under wraps because it involves a book with a text that was published previously, but was not illustrated. I’m very excited about it. And in preparation, I’ve signed up for an oil painting class at Art Center. So I am suddenly a student again, instead of a teacher, working totally out of my comfort zone.

That’s got to be good, right?

Nicki Richesin is the editor of four anthologies,What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To, and Letting Go of Their Daughters; Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond; Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love; and The May Queen: Women on Life, Work, and Pulling it all Together in your Thirties. Her anthologies have been excerpted and praised in The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Redbook, Parenting, Cosmopolitan, Bust, Salon, Daily Candy, and Babble.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Author Showcase

By Billi Tiner, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 30, 2012

Welcome Home is the story of Jake, a large black Labrador Retriever mix.  For as long as Jake can remember, he has been having the same dream.  In his dream, he lives with a wonderful man in a beautiful home.  Jake has never seen the face of the man in the dream; however, he knows his voice and he loves him.  Jake is certain that when he is old enough to be given away to a new home, he will be chosen by the man from his dream.  When the day finally arrives, Jake is very excited to finally meet the man that has filled his dreams.  However, the man that chooses Jake is definitely not the man from his dream!  Jake is taken to a home where he is terribly mistreated.  During this time, Jake never gives up the hope of finding the man from the dream.  After suffering years of abuse, Jake finally escapes and is free to begin his search for the man he has been dreaming of his entire life.  Along the way, Jake meets some interesting characters, survives amazing adventures, and forms life-long friendships.  Join Jake on his incredible journey home.

Dr. Billi Tiner has been a veterinarian for over 10 years. She was inspired to write Jake’s story by the many amazing animals she has met during her career as well as the incredible stories she has heard describing how owners were united with their beloved pets.  Though the stories vary, there is a theme that connects them all; the idea that the animals “chose” them to be their owners and “somehow knew” they belonged together.

Welcome Home is intended for children ages 10-12.  For more information visit Tiner Books on Facebook or contact Billi Tiner at tinerbooks@kinwick.com.

Welcome Home is available for purchase on Amazon.com and www.createspace.com/3748525.

Welcome Home ISBN-10: 1468082566; ISBN- 13: 978-1468082562; Price $6.99; 158pgs

The Author Showcase is a place for authors and illustrators to gain visibility for their works. This article was provided by the author. Learn more …

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Nina Schuyler, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 27, 2012

Coral Reefs

By Jason Chin

Reading level: Ages 5 and up

Hardcover: 40 pages

Publisher: Flash Point (October 25, 2011)

Source: Publisher

What to expect: Science, Nature, Biology, Marine life, Water

Jason Chin does something pretty wonderful in his nonfiction book, Coral Reefs: He hasn’t forgotten the wild imagination of a kid.

What makes Coral Reefs unique is that along with loads of interesting information, he’s included colorful watercolor illustrations that tell their own story. In a sense he is blurring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction. The result is something completely engaging. And this hybrid form dishes out just enough facts without overwhelming. So you learn that though coral reefs may look like plants, they’re actually animals; and at the same time, the pictures, which often take up more than half the page, tell the story of a girl who goes to the library and picks up a book about coral reefs.

Illustration copyright © 2011 by Jason Chin

You learn coral reefs are the largest structures built by an animal on earth! The Belize barrier reef is over 180 miles long!; and at the same time, the illustrations show the girl’s world transforming, with the library slipping away and turning into coral, along with sea plants and fish. “There are so many species living in reefs that they are often called the cities of the sea,” writes Chin. And the water whooshes into the library, and the girl is swept up on a wave that carries with it octopus, sea turtles, fish and more coral. Very quickly, the girl is floating underwater, exploring and learning about the city of the sea. It’s a city, Chin tells us, with “a complex web of relationships, and each has its own place in the system.”

“There are so many species living in reefs that they are often called the cities of the sea,”

After you’ve fallen in love with coral reefs and the teeming life that calls it home—“More than four thousand kinds of fish and thousands of other species have been discovered in coral reefs—more than in any other part of the ocean”—after he’s completely hooked you, Chin has bad news. The reefs, just like so many other living things, are threatened by pollution and over-fishing. Thankfully, he gives a list of things you can do to help. You can—and you’ll want to—form a relationship with the reefs.

Add this book to your collection: Coral Reefs

Nina Schuyler‘s first novel, The Painting, (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill/2004), was a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards. It was also selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the Best Books for 2004 and a “Great Debut from 2004″ by the Rocky Mountain News. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco and is working on a third novel.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Author Showcase

By Heather Payer-Smith, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 26, 2012

What good is a little green umbrella with a hole? That’s exactly what Annabel wonders when her mother insists she take it to school with her, just in case it rains. At first she complains, but Annabel soon learns that even an umbrella with a hole can keep those in need safe and dry.

“The Little Green Umbrella” teaches children that while kindness is sometimes taken for granted, those who put others first can find unexpected rewards in a selfless act.

Synopsis:  Annabel Lee is on her way to catch the bus to school when it starts to rain! Luckily she has an umbrella to keep her dry, even though it has a small hole in it. Annabel offers to share her little green umbrella with the other children at the bus stop who don’t have anything to keep them dry (even though that means she has to stand under the hole). Soon, someone with a bigger, better umbrella comes along and everyone leaves Annabelle alone and wet. Annabel is sad that they would abandon her for a better umbrella, but she soon discovers someone who needs her umbrella even more than she does!

Fun Fact:  The story behind “The Little Green Umbrella” is actually based on an experience the author had as a child.  Payer-Smith shares, “One rainy day, as I was getting ready to walk to the bus stop, my babysitter handed me a little green umbrella so that I would not get wet.  It was very old and had a hole in it, but it was better than nothing.  When I got to the bus stop, I was the only one with an umbrella!  All the other kids huddled under my little green umbrella as we waited for the bus.  That is, until another little girl arrived at the bus stop – but it was not a bigger, better umbrella that she had – she was in her grandmother’s car so all the kids piled into the car to stay warm and dry.  Because I had a sopping wet umbrella, I didn’t know what to do, so I remained on the corner all alone until the grandmother rolled down the window of the car and waved me over, smiling because there was still plenty of room for me and the umbrella in her car.”  While the real situation had a much different outcome than what is presented in the book, author Heather Payer-Smith felt there was a valuable lesson about kindness and sharing that children could learn from her experience on that rainy day so long ago.

Available in Paperback or as a FREE EBOOK (though author’s website).  For more information about the book or to download a free copy visit  http://payersmithbooks.weebly.com/the-little-green-umbrella.html

“The Little Green Umbrella” is also available to purchase at www.amazon.com

Paperback List Price: $7.95
8″ x 10″
Full Color on White paper
24 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1466217126; ISBN-10: 146621712X
BISAC:  Juvenile Fiction
Early Reader Picture Book

The Author Showcase is a place for authors and illustrators to gain visibility for their works. This article was provided by the author. Learn more …

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 25, 2012

Winner

Honor Book

Honor Book

Honor Book

Honor Book

“The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.” ~YALSA

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 23, 2012

Medal Winner

Honor Book

Honor Book

Honor Book

“The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year.” ~ALSC

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 23, 2012

Author Award Winner

Illustrator Award Winner

Author Honor Book

Author Honor Book

illustrator Honor Book

Illustrator Honor Book

“The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate.” ~ALSC

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.