Month: January 2024

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WEATHERFORD REPORT: TWO CSK Award Honors, Black History Month (and beyond), School Visits & BROS

For the first time ever, I attended the American Library Association Youth Media Awards in person. What a thrill to have not one but two books honored. KIN: ROOTED IN HOPE, illustrated by my son Jeffery Boston Weatherford, and HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR? MACNOLIA COX AND THE NATIONAL SPELLING BEE, illustrated by my frequent collaborator Frank Morrison, both won Coretta Scott King Award Author Honors. Thanks to the CSK Award Committee for all the love. And congratulations to all the CSK Award and YMA winners.

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There were two proud mamas–me and my 98-year-old mother–at the fabulous Reginald F. Lewis Museum book launch and pop-up exhibition for KIN: Rooted in Hope. That event, sponsored by the Roberts Family Foundation, capped our KIN book tour.

In other news, the KIN book tour last fall took us to Baltimore, Salt Lake City, New York, New Orleans and Washington, DC. Not even a library evacuation (bomb scare?) or hurricane could dampen our enthusiasm for sharing KIN, our family’s history, with readers and educators. Thanks to Sankofa Books, King’s English Bookshop, Baldwin & Co. and Books of Wonder for hosting launch events. Our kidlit friends Leah Henderson and Rita Williams-Garcia moderated discussions.

We are excited to be taking KIN home to Easton, Maryland, the verse novel’s setting, on February 23 and 24.

We have several Black History Month appearances planned for Baltimore, Washington, Northern Virginia and Philadelphia. If you are in the DMV or Philly and want to save on travel expenses, we still have openings. Reach out for dates and details.

This leap year adds a day to Black History Month. Rather than cramming Black studies into one short month, use Dawnavyn James’s recent book, BEYOND FEBRUARY: Teaching Black History Any Day, Every Day, and All Year Long, K-3. This instructive guide offers great ideas for using African-American children’s books–including my books, Moses and Unspeakable–in the classroom.

For more on how to approach Black studies, check out Dr. LaGarrett King’s brilliant Teaching Black History Framework. And, download the free annotated bibliography, Black History Books, which compiles links and lesson ideas for books by the Weatherfords.

We have several books forthcoming in 2024. The first quarter will see the release of BROS, a poetic picture book celebrating of Black Boy Joy. The book, illustrated by Reggie Brown, is a Junior Library Guild selection. Pre-order BROS now.

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Resistance to Enslavement Took Many Forms

When I share books about enslavement with students, some state that they would have revolted or escaped if enslaved. Those options were not the only acts of resistance waged by enslaved people.

In my verse novel, KIN: ROOTED IN HOPE, illustrated by my son Jeffery Boston Weatherford, we trace our lineage from colonial America to the all-Black, Reconstruction-era villages of Unionville and Copperville that our forebears cofounded. This poem imagines how my ancestor, Prissy Copper, might have resisted while a house servant at Maryland’s Wye House plantation.