2011
Author Award Winner
One
Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia J WIL
It is 1968, and three black sisters from Brooklyn have been put on a
California-bound plane by their father to spend a month with their mother, a
poet who ran off years before and is living in Oakland. It's the summer after
Black Panther founder Huey Newton was jailed and member Bobby Hutton was gunned
down trying to surrender to the Oakland police, and there are men in berets
shouting "Black Power" on the news. Delphine, 11, remembers her mother, but
after years of separation she's more apt to believe what her grandmother has
said about her, that Cecile is a selfish, crazy woman who sleeps on the street.
At least Cecile lives in a real house, but she reacts to her daughters' arrival
without warmth or even curiosity. Instead, she sends the girls to eat breakfast
at a center run by the Black Panther Party and tells them to stay out as long as
they can so that she can work on her poetry. Over the course of the next four
weeks, Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a lot of time
learning about revolution and staying out of their mother's way. Emotionally
challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and
place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and
personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have
engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading
and rereading.
Author Award
Honor Book
Lockdown
by Walter Dean Myers
Myers takes readers inside the walls of a juvenile corrections facility in this
gritty novel. Fourteen-year-old Reese is in the second year of his sentence for
stealing prescription pads and selling them to a neighborhood dealer. He fears
that his life is headed in a direction that will inevitably lead him “upstate,”
to the kind of prison you don’t leave. His determination to claw his way out of
the downward spiral is tested when he stands up to defend a weaker boy, and the
resulting recriminations only seem to reinforce the impossibility of escaping a
hopeless future. Reese’s first-person narration rings with authenticity as he
confronts the limits of his ability to describe his feelings, struggling to
maintain faith in himself; Myers’ storytelling skills ensure that the messages
he offers are never heavy-handed. The question of how to escape the cycle of
violence and crime plaguing inner-city youth is treated with a resolution that
suggests hope, but doesn’t guarantee it. A thoughtful book that could resonate
with teens on a dangerous path
Ninth
Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina is the setting for this tense novel that
blends the drama of the catastrophic storm with magic realism. Twelve-year-old
Lanesha’s teenage mother died while giving birth to her, and, because her
mother’s wealthy uptown family won’t have anything to do with her, she is raised
in the Ninth Ward by loving Mama Ya-Ya, 82, who feels like her “mother and
grandmother both.” Born with a caul over her eyes, Lanesha is teased at school,
but she is strengthened by her fierce caretaker’s devotion and by a teacher who
inspires Lanesha to become an engineer and build bridges. Lanesha also has
“second sight,” which includes an ability to see her mother’s ghost. As the
storm nears and the call comes for mandatory evacuation, Mama Ya-Ya envisions
that she will not survive, but Lanesha escapes the rising water in a small
rowboat and even rescues others along the way. The dynamics of the diverse
community enrich the survival story, and the contemporary struggle of one brave
child humanizes the historic tragedy
Yummy:
The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri
Robert Sandifer—called “Yummy” thanks to his sweet tooth—was born in 1984 on the
South Side of Chicago. By age 11 he had become a hardened gangbanger, a killer,
and, finally, a corpse. In 1994, he was a poster child for the hopeless
existence of kids who grow up on urban streets, both victims and victimizers,
shaped by the gang life that gives them a sense of power. Neri’s graphic-novel
account, taken from several sources and embellished with the narration of a
fictional classmate of Yummy’s, is a harrowing portrait that is no less
effective given its tragic familiarity. The facts are laid out, the suppositions
plausible, and Yummy will earn both the reader’s livid rage and deep sympathy,
even as the social structure that created him is cast, once again, as America’s
undeniable shame. Tightly researched and sharply written, if sometimes
heavy-handed, the not-quite-reportage is brought to another level by DuBurke’s
stark black-and-white art, which possesses a realism that grounds the nightmare
in uncompromising reality and an emotional expressiveness that strikes right to
the heart
Illustrator Award Winner
Dave
the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill j 921 Dave Hil
As a closing essay explains, little is known about the man known as Dave the
potter. Two things are certain, though: he was a slave in South Carolina, and he
was a potter of uncommon skill. As Hill writes, “Dave was one of only two
potters at the time who could successfully make pots that were larger than
twenty gallons.” He also inscribed strange, sophisticated poetry into the clay:
“I wonder where / is all my relation / friendship to all— / and, every nation.”
The verses Hill uses to introduce us to Dave are sometimes just as evocative:
“On wet days, / heavy with rainwater, / it is cool and squishy, / mud pie
heaven.” The book’s quiet dignity comes from its refusal to scrutinize life as a
slave; instead, it is nearly a procedural, following Dave’s mixing, kneading,
spinning, shaping, and glazing. Collier’s gorgeous watercolor-and-collage
illustrations recall the work of E. B. Lewis—earth-toned, infused with pride,
and always catching his subjects in the most telling of poses. A beautiful
introduction to a great lost artist.
Illustrator Honor Book
Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix
illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, written by Gary Golio
Although Jimi Hendrix’s music typically sits in the wheelhouse of teenagers
discovering their countercultural streak, this picture book deigns to introduce
the revolutionary musician to younger readers. By no means a straight bio, it
describes his formative early life with lines like “A truck engine backfired,
pounding like a bass drum, as a neighbor’s rake played snare against the
sidewalk. . . . The sounds of life were calling out, and Jimmy Hendrix wanted to
answer them.” It is, however, a convincing portrait of a boy who was electrified
by music and heard the world very differently from anyone else; his
single-minded drive to “paint with sound” in his own fashion will inspire young
artists of all stripes. Steptoe’s chaotic, textured artwork screeches in
feedback wails on the page, filled with impressions in lieu of representations.
Hendrix’s struggle with drugs is addressed in an afterword, but as pure
virtuoso, guitar heroes don’t get any bigger, and readers with hands itching for
frets will be entranced.
John Steptoe New Talent Award for Illustration
Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon, authors of “Zora and Me
Sonia Lynn Sadler, illustrator of “Seeds of Change,” written by Jen Cullerton Johnson
Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Dr. Henrietta Mays Smith, professor emerita at the University of South Florida, Tampa, School of Library and Information Science
2010
Author Award Winner
“Bad
News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal,”
written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.
j 921 REE
Sitting tall in the saddle, with a wide-brimmed black hat and twin Colt pistols
on his belt, Bass Reeves seemed bigger than life. As a U.S. Marshal - and former
slave who escaped to freedom in the Indian Territories - Bass was cunning and
fearless.
When a lawbreaker heard Bass Reeves had his warrant, he knew it was the end of
the trail, because Bass always got his man, dead or alive. He achieved all this
in spite of whites who didn't like the notion of a black lawman.
For three decades, Bass was the most feared and respected lawman in the
territories. He made more than 3,000 arrests, and though he was a crack shot and
a quick draw, he only killed fourteen men in the line of duty. Bad News for
Outlaws reveals the story of a remarkable African American hero of the Old West.
Author Award Honor Book
“Mare’s
War” by Tanita S. Davis
Meet Mare, a grandmother with flair and a fascinating
past.
Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to
take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical
grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and
push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But
somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what
you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life
in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American battalion
of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.
Told in alternating chapters, half of which follow Mare through her experiences
as a WAC member and half of which follow Mare and her granddaughters on the road
in the present day, this novel introduces a larger-than-life character who will
stay with readers long after they finish reading.
Illustrator Award Winner
“My
People,” illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr., written by Langston
Hughes.
Langston Hughes's spare yet eloquent tribue to his people has been cherished for
generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. interprets this
beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and
the soul of being a black American today.
Illustrator Honor Book
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” illustrated by E. B. Lewis,
written by Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes has long been acknowledged as the voice, and his poem, The Negro
Speaks of Rivers, the song, of the Harlem Renaissance. Although he was only
seventeen when he composed it, Hughes already had the insight to capture in
words the strength and courage of black people in America.
Artist E.B. Lewis acts as interpreter and visionary, using watercolor to pay
tribute to Hughes's timeless poem, a poem that every child deserves to know.
John Steptoe New Talent Award for Illustration
“The
Rock and the River,” written by Kekla Magoon YA MAG
The Time: 1968
The Place: Chicago
For thirteen-year-old Sam it's not easy being the son of known civil rights
activist Roland Childs. Especially when his older (and best friend), Stick,
begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam
finds something that changes everything forever.
Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds literature about the
Black Panthers under Stick's bed, he's not sure who to believe: his father or
his best friend. Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore.
Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect chnage without
using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching
as his friends and family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community.
Sam beings to explore the Panthers with Stick, but soon he's involved in
something far more serious -- and more dangerous -- than he could have ever
predicted. Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or
his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?
Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Walter
Dean Myers is the winner of this first-ever Coretta Scott King – Virginia
Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. The award pays tribute to the quality
and magnitude of beloved children’s author Virginia Hamilton. Myers’ books
include: Amiri & Odette: A Love Story, Fallen Angels, Monster, and
Sunrise Over Fallujah.