HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY: NEW GRAPHIC NOVELS, YA, AND NONFICTION

By Megan Ciskowski, Associate Publicist

Check out August new releases from Lerner Publishing Group!

By Carole Boston Weatherford

“There is no greater gift than the truth.”
Floyd Cooper

I credit my two children with introducing me to Floyd Cooper—not the man but the artist. Their grandmother gave them the poetry book Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea by Joyce Carol Thomas. Floyd’s subjects’ faces glowed with warmth and love. I next encountered his work in Nikki Grimes’s Meet Danitra Brown. Floyd’s realistic illustrations invited my daughter into Danitra’s neighborhood and into her circle of friends.

Are you pigeonholing your picture books, limiting them to just primary grades? Gain insights from librarians and literacy luminaries Betsy Bird, Cicely Lewis, and Susannah Richards as they discuss the benefits of and strategies for using picture books with older students—including middle grade and high schoolers.

Did you know we have oodles of free resources available to download, from lesson plans to activity sheets to discussion guides? We sure do! Summer is a great time to browse through these resources and find ways to get students more engaged with the books in your library.

By Megan Ciskowski, Assistant Publicist

For almost seventy-five years the history behind the Tulsa Race Massacre was undocumented and omitted. Now with the 100th anniversary approaching on May 31st and June 1st, it’s crucial we take time to remember the victims and share their stories with readers of all ages.

The picture book Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa’s Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community. Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and acclaimed illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a sensitive and powerful introduction to one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation’s history.

Continue reading to find numerous resources and articles associated with Unspeakable that you can use to begin discussing the anniversary with your readers. Visit the Unspeakable page on the Lerner website for more information.