Dorothea Lange: How the Photographer Found the Faces of the Depression. Art by debut illustrator Sarah Green. Snap, snap.

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, has received three starred reviews. I hope that this biography will shine the spotlight on Lena for a new generation of admirers.

• * “Weatherford’s writing is succinct and inspirational. Zunon’s oil paint and cut-paper collage illustrations are more than a match for Horne’s dynamic onstage presence. Their dramatic design showcases a . . . memorable life dedicated to music and civil rights, presented with commensurate style.”– Kirkus Reviews, starred review
• * “An exceptionally handsome book. . . . Weatherford’s informative yet succinct text is juxtaposed against a happily oversize picture-book format that allows enough room for Zunon’s impressive oil-paint and collage artwork.”– Booklist, starred review
• * “Weatherford and Zunon vibrantly capture the setbacks and triumphs of African-American performer Lena Horne tracing her rise from a Brooklyn childhood to a singer and actress who faced persistent racism.”– Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Association for Library Service  to Children selected two of my books for its 2017 Notables list.

Freedom in Congo Square, illustrated by Gregory Christie

You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen, illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatheford

This news capped a wonderful ALA Midwinter for me during which Freedom in Congo Square won the Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. Congratulations to both illustrators on what has been a spectacular awards season. I look forward to our future collaborations.

Being given a book of your own to take home and keep is great. Being given a handmade reading blanket to go with the book is even better.

That’s what happened with second-graders at Cook Literacy Model School and the Elementary School Academy n Winston-Salem, N.C. Last fall, five women from the Beta Mu chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society came to the media center at Cook with a box of books–my own Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins–and bag after bag of handmade blankets.

Doesn’t this make you feel warm and fuzzy? Read more here.

The American Library Association Youth Media Awards were announced today in Atlanta. My collaborator Gregory Christie won Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honors for his illustrations in our picture book Freedom in Congo Square. Congratulations to Greg and thanks to our editor Sonali Fry.

The April master class themed “Poetic License Renewal” was a day to be remembered. Promising manuscripts and wonderful people. Next up is the June 9-11 weekend intensive. Spaces only for 8.

Award committee members, thank you for all the love for these two books. And congratulations to illustrators Jeffery Weatherford and Gregory Christie on our collaborations! It’s been a wonderful year.

YOU CAN FLY: THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN. Illustrated by Jeffery Weatherford

ALSC Notables for Older Readers (Association for Library Service to Children, American Library Association)

Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Verse

NCTE Best Verse Novels (National Council of Teachers of English)

New York Public Library 100 Books for Reading & Sharing

Fuse 8 Productions Best Poetry Books for Kids

Nonfiction Detectives Best Nonfiction Books

CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE. Illustrated by Gregory Christie

Caldecott Honor Medal

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor

Charlotte Zolotow Award (for picture book text, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

ALSC Notables for all ages (Association for Library Service to Children, American Library Association)

Illustrators Society Original Art Show

School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Books of 2016

Horn Book Fanfare

NCTE Best Poetry Books of 2016 (National Council of Teachers of English)

New York Public Library 100 Books for Reading & Sharing

Washington Post Best Children’s Books of 2016

New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2016

Huffington Post Most Powerful Picture Book of the Year honor

Center for Study of Multicultural Literature Best Books of 2016

Chicago Public Library Best Informational Books for Younger Readers

CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Capitol Choices

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A few months ago, I compiled a book list for Young Black Princes. Here is a companion list for Beautiful Brown Girls. Most are biographies of strong sisters  who distinguished themselves  despite adversity.

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century

Oprah: The Little Speaker

Michelle Obama: First Mom

Becoming Billie Holiday

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins

Birmingham, 1963

While touring to launch Freedom in Congo Square, I visited Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington. Before reading to school groups, I sat down for an interview. I had almost forgotten that I wore a fedora that day.

I’ve been told that I write boy books–if there is such a thing. Sure, I’ve written about women like Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Fannie Lou Hamer and had girls as fictional narrators. But many of my biographies focus on boys who beat the odds and grew into great men. Achievers whom I wish my son had learned of as a boy. As a young black prince.

My son was an avid reader, but preferred fantasy and sci-fi to nonfiction–unless the subject was magic or sharks or drawing. When he was a tween, I’d borrow a stack of library books for him in hopes that he’d read one or two. I also bought him chapter books like Bud, Not Buddy; Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs; and  Drew and the Bub Daddy Showdown. 

But I wish I had served up more nonfiction about African American history, which was too often neglected or whitewashed in school. In my own defense, there were not many juvenile biographies then of African American men beyond Martin Luther King, George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson and Michael Jordan. So, I write picture books that I think would have inspired and empowered my son. For today’s young black princes.

Books for Young Black Princes

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer

Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive

Sink or Swim: African American Lifesavers of the Outer Banks

You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

Racing Against the Odds: The Story of Wendell Scott, Stock Car Racing’s First African American Champion

A Negro League Scrapbook

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins

Obama: Only in America

And for babies and toddlers:

My Favorite Toy

Mighty Menfolk