JambaLAya Kidlit Festival in New Orleans

I just signed up for the New Orleans SCBWI JambaLAya Kidlit Conference! Have you? Early bird pricing is in effect until the end of January–a great deal for a conference! Diversity scholarships are available, too. AND there are manuscript / portfolio consultations, plus a dinner. It’s going to be great! I’ve gotten to know the…Continue reading JambaLAya Kidlit Festival in New Orleans

Book review: The books of Crystal Allen

If you like character-driven, middle-grade fiction about realistic kids of color doing real things–with a lot of humor and learning-from-mistakes–check out Crystal Allen’s wonderful books. When I attended the SCBWI Houston conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Crystal and having her review my manuscript. Her advice has been incredibly helpful, and I’m hoping it’s…Continue reading Book review: The books of Crystal Allen

Book review: Hoodoo

What’s worse than being six years old and too sick for trick-or-treating on Halloween? Not much. My youngest is home with a fever today, and between Dan TDM videos (Minecraft fans know what I’m talking about), we’re reading spooky books. Ronald L. Smith’s Hoodoo is a little intense for a six-year-old; I’d say it’s geared…Continue reading Book review: Hoodoo

Book review: One Crazy Summer

Rita Williams Garcia’s One Crazy Summer hooked me right away. Narrator Delphine, a spunky 11-year-old girl, travels across the country with her sisters to see their mother, but spends her summer at a Black Panther camp for kids in 1960s Oakland, California.

Book review: Brown Girl Dreaming

How did I not know that Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming was a book in verse?! Highly awarded, this memoir (in verse!) describes the author’s childhood in the 1960’s and ’70s in Iowa, South Carolina, and Brooklyn. Woodson paints portraits of places and people with spare-yet-lush poetic language. Each poem could stand alone, some moreso…Continue reading Book review: Brown Girl Dreaming