By Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X’s Early Years as an Audiobook Download
Celebrate Malcolm X’s 90th Birthday with a Spoken Word Performance of His Teen Years! Meet Malcolm X Before He Knew He Was Destined to Fight for #BlackLivesMatter! FREE MP3 SPOKEN WORD On 5/21/15 a free MP3 audiobook download of the acclaimed young adult novel X: A Novel will be available for one week. Readers who grab that file between 5/21/15 (8 AM EST) and 5/27/15 will be able to keep the spoken word performance of Malcolm X’s teenage years indefinitely. SIGN UP VIA TEXT You can sign-up on the spot to get a text alert when the download file becomes available....
Read MoreBooks to Pull Spring Out of Hiding
Let’s admit it. This Winter is a guest that has stayed far too long. We stand in our lawns waiting for him to pack up, shake hands with us and head down the road in a big rusty snowplow. He is supposed to be gone by Easter (if not sooner). But here we are at Easter weekend and we have not seen more than a glimpse of Spring. She is being shy this year. Spring does not want to come into New England until Winter he’s reeved up his old truck and started backing out of the driveway. It is time to start dropping some serious hints with Winter. I charge you to head to your...
Read MoreAsking, But Why?: Girls and Economic and Social Justice
Naima asks, “But why?” when reminded she cannot drive her father’s rickshaw to help her family because she is a girl. Gender inequality in labor is just one of the beautifully handled international issues in Mitali Perkin’s slim novel, Rickshaw Girl. Days after the 2015 International Women’s Day rallying cry of, “”Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!,” Curious City features five books where girls asked, “but why?” when faced with economic and social injustices. Curious City joined Chris Lenois on Green Mountain...
Read MoreReaping Frustration: YA Novels & Diversity in Awards Season
A children’s book award season that began in November with a racist joke by National Book Award host Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) minutes after Jacqueline Woodson accepted her National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming ended with resounding support for diverse books at the 2015 ALA Youth Media Awards on February 2nd. Daniel Handler’s tasteless remarks were followed by a tasteful donation of $10,000 to We Need Diverse books and a pledge to match donations up to $100,000. Before the 24 hours were out, close to 1/4 million dollars...
Read MorePeaceful & Proud Inside: Muslim Families in KidLit
With the headlines screaming “Muslim Extremists” and “Muslim Terrorists” in wake of attacks in Paris, it is good time to feed your children a good diet of books featuring Muslim families from around the world and from our very own neighborhoods. After 9/11, many looked to the bookshelves in the United States and found them bereft of stories about Muslim children and families. Children’s book authors, illustrators and publishers sought to quickly fill the gap in our literature. We still have so far to go, but there are now so many wonderful stories—including the...
Read MoreThe 2014 Curious City Besties
What book will be a child’s “bestie”? What 2014 book will be your child’s favorite companion? Everyone in the book review press is lining up to declare the Best Children’s Books of 2014. They are, indeed, astounding reads all. If you are buying books for children, though, the best route is to approach a bookseller or librarian and describe your young reader by personality and (if you know) by their favorite books. Those booksellers and librarians are magic at making book matches. Let them give you a unique idea for a book gift. If you’re buying gifts...
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