Karen Michele’s Comments (group member since Dec 02, 2020)

Karen Michele’s comments from the Equity and Inclusion: Represent, Amplify, Normalize group.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:

Winner
Watercress by Andrea Wang

Honors
Have You Ever Seen a Flower? by Shawn Harris
Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford
Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature:

Winner:
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

Honors:
Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
Watercress by Andrea Wang

Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience:

Winner
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff

Honors
Almost Flying by Jake Maia Arlow
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
Grandad's Camper by Harry Woodgate

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:

Award for young children (ages 0 to 10)

Winner
My City Speaks by Darren Lebeuf

Honors
A Walk in the Words by Hudson Talbott
A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman


Middle grades (ages 11-13)

Winner
A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers

Honors
Stuntboy, in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

Teens (ages 13-18)

Winner
The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia

Honor
A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome by Ariel Henley

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Presented by the Association of Jewish Libraries since 1968, the award encourages the publication and widespread use of quality Judaic literature.

Picture Book

Gold Winner
The Passover Guest by Susan Kusel

Silver Honors
Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued by Peter Sís
Dear Mr. Dickens by Nancy Churnin
The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld

Middle Grade

Gold Winner
How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani

Silver Honors
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin
Linked by Gordon Korman

Young Adult

Gold Winner
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

Silver Honors
The Last Words We Said by Leah Scheier
Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero by E. Lockhart
The Summer of Lost Letters by Hannah Reynolds

Jane Yolen
The Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award recognizes an author or entity who has made a substantial contribution over time to the genre of Jewish children’s literature. This year's winner is Jane Yolen.

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. The award promotes Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and is awarded based on literary and artistic merit.

Picture Book

Winner
Watercress by Andrea Wang

Honor
A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi by James Yang

Children’s Literature

Winner
Amina's Song by Hena Khan

Honor
Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh

Youth Literature

Winner
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Honor
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

American Indian Youth Literature Awards are announced in even years (e.g. 2022, 2024, 2026) and were established to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians and Alaska Natives. Selected titles present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.

Picture Books

Winner
Herizon by Daniel Vandever

Honors
Becoming Miss Navajo Diné Bich’eekę Yishłeeh by Jolyana Begay-Kroupa
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell
Learning My Rights with Mousewoman by Morgan Asoyuf
I Sang You Down from the Stars
We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell

Middle Grade

Winner
Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young

Honors
Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector by Diane Wilson
Indigenous Peoples' Day by Katrina M. Phillips
Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley
Peggy Flanagan Ogimaa Kwe, Lieutenant Governor by Jessica Engelking
The Sea in Winter by Christine Day

Young Adult

Winner
Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth

Honors
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline
Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene
Soldiers Unknown by Chag Lowry

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented 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.

Youth Illustrator

Winner
¡Vamos! Let's Cross the Bridge by Raúl the Third

Honor
Boogie Boogie, Y'all by C.G. Esperanza
Bright Star by Yuyi Morales
de Aquí Como El Coquí by Nomar Perez
May Your Life Be Deliciosa

Children's Author

Winner
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

Honors
Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs
Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua by Gloria Amescua
de Aquí Como El Coquí by Nomar Perez

Young Adult Author

Winner
How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

Honors
Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa
Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp
Where I Belong by Marcia Argueta Mickelson

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:

Winner
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Honors:
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
Starfish by Lisa Fipps

Coretta Scott King Book Awards recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award:

Winner
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford

Honors
Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
The People Remember by Ibi Zoboi

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford

Honors:
Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd
We Wait for the Sun by Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award:
Me by Amber McBride

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award
The Me I Choose To Be by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Nikki Grimes
Nikki Grimes is the winner of the 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. Grimes has been widely recognized for her distinguished contribution to children’s and young adult literature, winning numerous major awards. After more than 77 books, she has sealed her legacy by weaving poetry and novels in verse into an impressive body of work. Grimes currently resides in Corona, California, where she continues her powerful writing.

All of the awards are listed on this press release:

https://www.ala.org/news/press-releas...

In late June, I had the opportunity to attend the online American Library Association National Conference. Here are some slides that were shared highlighting ways to support intellectual freedom, diverse collection development and equity issues in our libraries.







Publishing, Marketing and Collections



Full citation: Huyck, David and Sarah Park Dahlen. (2019 June 19). Diversity in Children’s Books 2018. sarahpark.com blog. Created in consultation with Edith Campbell, Molly Beth Griffin, K. T. Horning, Debbie Reese, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Madeline Tyner, with statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison: https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/liter.... Retrieved from https://readingspark.wordpress.com/20....

Companion Article

White Gatekeeping in YA Harms Teen Readers

We, the gatekeepers, the ones who believe we have the knowledge, the expertise, and the skills, who insist on labeling books by and for certain age groups, who continue to speak about protecting teenagers — we’re the ones who are broken. We fail to understand teenagers are wildly individual, uniquely intelligent, and perfectly capable of reading, understanding context, and relating their own experiences to those in the story.
Anyone who has worked with teens knows they’ll give up on a book if they don’t like it or, in their parlance, it isn’t “relatable.” Teens are expert bullshit detectors. They aren’t reading a YA book because it’s intended for readers who are their age. They’re reading it because it’s relatable to them in some capacity, even if it’s an experience or world they never, nor ever will, be a part of.









Young Adult Librarian

New York Public Library

Crystal Chen (she/her/hers) is the Young Adult Librarian at the Woodstock branch of The New York Public Library. She earned a BA in fine arts from Amherst College, a MFA in printmaking from SUNY New Paltz, and a MSLIS from Pratt Institute. She is interested in the intersection of art, activism, and social justice and how libraries can create inclusive, responsive programming for youth communities.

Presentation(s):
Problematic Titles and You: Inclusive Collections, Hot Topics, and Intellectual Freedom (IFRT Chair's Program)
Saturday, June 26, 2021
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM CT

The last in person national conference I attended was in Chicago the summer of 2013. We were all excited to hear John Lewis speak and to have the opportunity to meet him when he signed an advanced booklet of March. I did get to meet him briefly and to meet his co author, Andrew Aydin. This year at the virtual conference, Andrew Aydin spoke to us about the newest book, Run, coming out on August 3 and about his time working on the books with John Lewis. I've paraphrased the highlights of his talk:

Run: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin

I started working for John Lewis as the person who opened his mail. Then I learned to answer in his style and then became his press secretary connecting him to the public through words and social media. That is how we also built a connection to each other.
He purposely never said the word weapon.
He said that the weight of your words has to be earned.
When he decided to write a memoir, we decided that the graphic novel process was extracting the right style to capture John Lewis on the page.
I would read it to him in his voice and he would do it back to verify the authenticity.
It was as much a scholarly work as a memoir. Sources are included so that when you have that curious reader that wants to know more, you have provided that jumping off point.

Run includes the trademark small pictures at the beginning and end: chickens at the beginning and worn out shoes at the end.
Everyone who has read March has seen and read about John Lewis preaching to the chickens! He wanted to honor farm life and his rural beginnings. The graphic format can show the reality of that life.
The focus on the pair of worn out shoes encourages curiosity.
We needed to show the wear and tear that comes from this work.

The national conference is a great way to learn more about new publications. Here are some of the highlights.

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented 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.

Youth Illustrator

Winner
¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat by Raúl the Third
My parents told me amazing stories that I didn’t see on the shelves of the library. Planting the seed in their minds that they can create.

Honor
Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Monica Brown
I felt deeply proud to be Peruvian.

Children's Author

Winner
Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros
“My ode to immigrant families everywhere.”
For a change I wanted to make sure Latinx children everywhere could see themselves as first class citizens.“

Honors
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas
“Show young readers they aren’t alone in their realities”
Lupe Wong Won't Dance by Donna Barba Higuera
“I was not enough of this and not enough of that.”

Young Adult Author

Winner
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
“I played on the cracked asphalt of the parking lot. My home was a haven, so was school.”

Honors
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez
What it does not capture is the understanding that they are running for their lives.
Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera
“There is no shame in asking for help.”

The comments below the books were made in award acceptance speeches at the virtual American Library Association National Conference in June, 2021.

In Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad, books and multimodal materials form the core that supplements the curriculum and enhances integrated curriculum efforts.

My Review

Books mattered. In literary societies, literature and reading various texts were at the heart of all their pursuits and literacy learning goals. They read diverse literature to enrich their minds and also to cultivate their identities, skills, intellect, and criticality. p137

Using Text to Cultivate the Genius in Students and Teachers: p147 to 155



Educators "layer texts" when they teach and learn from powerful and multimodal texts. These texts are print and nonprint and are intellectually compelling. p147

Primary Sources at The Library of Congress:

The Brownie Book

Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper by Jacqueline Bacon (expensive/hard to find)

Freedom's Journal Poetry Sources: (p 143)

The complete poems of William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant (Available on Kindle $ .99)
Includes "The African Chief"

The Poetry of Phyllis Wheatley by Phyllis Wheatley (Available on Kindle $3.65)
Includes "(An) Hymn Humanity" and "(An) Hymn to the Morning"

"Forget Me Not" by F. G. Halleck, Google Books
The Yorkshire Literary Annual

"On the Poetic Muse" by George Moses Horton, p144
(complete poem)

Other sources for George Moses Horton and many other primary/secondary sources can be found at:
Documenting the American South

Biography and Other Sources

Picture Book Biography:

Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:

Award for young children (ages 0 to 10)

Winner
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott

Honors
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl's Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel
Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin by Tracy Newman

Middle grades (ages 11-13)

Winner
Show Me a Sign

Honors
by Sarah Kapit
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson

Teens (ages 13-18)

Winner
This Is My Brain in Love by I.W. Gregorio

Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience:

Winner
We Are Little Feminists: Families by Little Feminist

Honors
Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
by Adib Khorram Darius the Great Deserves Better
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

I'm including the 2020 winner because I just finished it and it was excellent. I suggest reading it in print because of the poetry format.
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

Why Kids Need Queer Books

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:


Winner
Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
I had no idea how little I had.
Freely everything has been given to us.
Give back.

Honors:
Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth
We’ve lived as a community on this land for over 200 years.
As an Indigenous person in this country I am always aware of what can be taken away.
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
Over and over again, I saw these young men step onto the court with courage.
Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
This is the award you want to get because it is about literary merit.
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
What I think it means is that the hate we are facing today is very old
They spent their formative years in this incarceration
Where were the bleeding hearts in 1942?
How could they do that? But they did.
This happened here. To us.
Thank you for seeing this. Thank you for seeing us.

The comments below the books were made in award acceptance speeches at the virtual American Library Association National Conference in June, 2021.

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:

Winner
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
“Painting becomes a conversation between me and Mother Earth.”
Honors
A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart by Zetta Elliott
The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham
Me & Mama by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Outside In by Deborah Underwood (not BIPOC)

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature:
Winner:
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
“If the tiger was haunting Lily, it was haunting me, too.”
“We tell stories because they connect us to ourselves and bring us back to who we are.”
Honors:
Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat

The comments below the books were made in award acceptance speeches at the virtual American Library Association National Conference in June, 2021.

Coretta Scott King Book Awards recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award:

Winner
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
“father and a son and the deep love within this family”
Librarians - “you’ve had your hand on my back on this journey”

Honors
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
“Transformation through healing”
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne
“Do not allow their centuries of work to be in vain. Pass HR1”

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carole Boston Weatherford
Honors
Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration by Samara Cole Doyon
“I try to represent the reality of black characters that are not often seen in picture books.”
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade
“Distorted messages are cultivating an entire self concept and out of that self concept grows limitation.”
Me & Mama by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award:
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
“not despite their blackness, but in concert with it”
“live in the now while having a dream”


The comments below the books were made in award acceptance speeches at the virtual American Library Association National Conference in June, 2021.