Nigeria Jones by Ibi ZoboiHigh School Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 384 pp.5/23 9780062888846 $19.99e-book ed. 9780062888860 $12.99Sixteen-year-old Nigeria is expected to lead the youth of the Movement (which is “like a small African West Philly village in the big, white state of Pennsylvania”) and model what it means to be a...
I own a well-read copy of Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. It’s a classic in many households, as it should be. It’s not just the stories that I return to over and over again; it’s the magical illustrations by the dynamic duo Leo and Diane Dillon....
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi Intermediate, Middle School Dutton 128 pp. g 1/22 978-0-399-18738-4 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-0-399-18739-1 $9.99 A biography that’s as unique in form and content as the groundbreaking sci-fi/fantasy author herself. Zoboi (The People Remember, rev. 11/21) came to this...
Firstly, I always have to thank my co-author, Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam, for extending such warmth and grace throughout our process of drafting, revising, publishing, and promoting Punching the Air, a story inspired by Yusef’s experiences as a wrongfully incarcerated teen. We can never truly understand Yusef’s journey. However,...
The People Remember by Ibi Zoboi; illus. by Loveis Wise Primary, Intermediate Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 64 pp. g 9/21 978-0-06-291564-1 $19.99 Through art and words, with the framework of the seven principles of Kwanzaa, Zoboi (American Street, rev. 3/17; Black Enough, rev. 1/19) and Wise beautifully “sew together a...
Today on Calling Caldecott, a conversation between Elisa Gall and Jonathan Hunt about holiday books and the Caldecott Award. (This is an entry in their why-the-hell Calling Caldecott series. Previous posts include discussions about the Caldecott and photography; board books; the Newbery Award; and "didactic intent.") – J.D. and M.V.P. ELISA...
Fiction and Poetry week continues in our month-long virtual Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards celebration. Today, judge Nicholl Denice Montgomery introduces the 2021 BGHB Fiction and Poetry Honor Book Punching the Air: The 2021 Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book Award for Fiction and Poetry is presented to authors Ibi...
This interview originally appeared in the July/August 2021 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Debut Authors and Illustrators, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions. Sponsored by Novelist...
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi with Yusef Salaam; illus. by Omar T. Pasha High School Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 400 pp. g 9/20 978-0-06-299648-0 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-299650-3 $10.99 Sixteen-year-old Amal Dawud Shahid (who is African American) knows he didn’t throw the punch that left Jeremy Mathis (who is white)...
I once taught a rites-of-passage class to a group of African American and Caribbean American teenage girls. The workshops included lessons in history, self-care, and literacy. These classes weren’t supposed to be like school. I was there to help deepen their understanding of their world and their place in it.I...