Celebrating the best of children’s international books of 2011! Outstanding International Books is a project of the United States chapter of the International Board on Books for the Young. These books reflect excellence in worldwide writing for young readers. The…
Category: Economic Justice/Poverty/Immigration
Journey of an African Refugee: A Review of Now Is the Time for Running
In the past two years, immigration has become a hot-button issue in the United States, with various states passing harsh immigration laws and vigilante groups patrolling the border. Living in a large country with little coverage of the outside world,…
Anthony Horton: Rest in Peace
Many of you didn’t hear about Anthony Horton’s death. Probably most of you don’t know who he is. Anthony Horton spent the last thirty years living underground in New York City’s subway tunnels. Sunday he died in a fire in…
We’ve Got a Job
Several outstanding nonfiction books for youth published in the last few years have told the story of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, a city notorious even in the South for its resistance to change and the amount of…
And the Winner Is…
Yesterday the American Library Association announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards, an event one colleague compared to opening a pile of holiday gifts. The “gift” that made me the happiest this year was the Pura Belpré Award for…
The Birthday Party Pledge
For the past two years, I’ve spent the middle of January at the residency for Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults, but before I enrolled in this fine program, I staffed a…
No Ordinary Day: New and Noteworthy
NO ORDINARY DAY by Deborah Ellis, the acclaimed Canadian children’s author, is an adventure story of the heart that a reader of any age will never forget. Out of coal dust and leprosy, Deborah Ellis has created Valli, a…
What History Can Teach the Occupiers: A Review of Round & Round Together
Six weeks ago, I took my first trip to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Since then, the numbers have grown in New York City, and the Occupy movement has spread to hundreds of other cities in the…
Homelessness in Picture Books
Although I can’t recall reading any picture books that explored serious social issues when I was a child, I was certainly surrounded by them in every day life. Because I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, many of my classmates…
Healing, Miracles, and Young Adult Literature: An Interview with Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Interview by J.L. Powers Poet and novelist Benjamin Alire Sáenz—recently named by Poets and Writers as one of the world’s most inspiring writers—just brought out his sixth collection of poetry, The Book of What Remains (Copper Canyon Press, 2010).…