The Children’s Book Review | January 28, 2014
Coretta Scott King Award Winner—Author
The Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizes an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.
P.S. Be Eleven
Rita Williams-Garcia’s much-anticipated middle-grade novel P.S. Be Eleven is the sequel to her New York Times bestseller One Crazy Summer, a Newbery Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award.
Eleven-year-old Brooklyn girl Delphine feels overwhelmed with worries and responsibilities. She’s just started sixth grade and is self-conscious about being the tallest girl in the class, and nervous about her first school dance. She’s supposed to be watching her sisters, but Fern and Vonetta are hard to control. Her uncle Darnell is home from Vietnam and seems different. And her pa has a girlfriend. At least Delphine can write to her mother in Oakland, California, for advice. But why does her mother tell her to “be eleven” when Delphine is now twelve?
The historical novel, set in the 1960s, features vivid characters, insight into family relationships, and a strong sense of place.
Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Amistad | May 21, 2013 | ISBN-13: 978-0061938627
Honor Books
March: Book One, by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Productions.
Darius & Twig, by Walter Dean Myers and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; and
Words with Wings, by Nikki Grimes and published by WordSong, an imprint of Highlights.
Coretta Scott King Award Winner—Illustrator
Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me
Illustrated by Bryan Collier (award winner); written by Daniel Beaty
Every morning, I play a game with my father.
He goes knock knock on my doorand I pretend to be asleeptill he gets right next to the bed.And my papa, he tells me, “I love you.”
Ages 3-6 | Publisher: Little, Brown and Company | Dec. 17, 2013 | ISBN-13: 978-0316209175
Honor Book
Nelson Mandela, illustrated and written by Kadir Nelson and published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award
Winner: Theodore Taylor III for his illustrations in …
When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop
By Laban Carrick Hill; Illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc.
On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks—the musical interludes between verses—longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born. From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx, Laban Carrick Hill’s book tells how Kool Herc came to be a DJ, how kids in gangs stopped fighting in order to breakdance, and how the music he invented went on to define a culture and transform the world.
Ages 6-10 | Publisher: Roaring Brook Press | Aug. 27, 2013 | ISBN-13: 978-1596435407
Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
The Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement award is presented in even years to an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults, and who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.
Winners: Authors Patricia and Researcher Fredrick McKissack
“Patricia McKissack and her late husband Fredrick McKissack, both natives of Tennessee, began their writing and research partnership in the 1980’s. Their subject matter from family-based folklore to nonfiction titles, are scholarly researched and written with accurate, authentic text, creating a cultural transmission of history. Their immense range of topics are informative, readable and enjoyable, covering accounts from slavery days to biographical studies of noted men and women in African American history past and present.”—ALA
Congratulations to this year’s recipients! In 2011, Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer was a New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. We thought you might enjoy going back in time and checking out the Coretta Scott King Award winners and honors from this particular year.
