Publishers Weekly has given a starred review to How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee (Candlewick) by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison. The review says “Morrison’s distinctive portraiture shows the protagonist meeting with Black legends in Akron, and juxtaposes the community support Cox enjoys in her home state with experiences of racial discrimination in the nation’s capital.”

How Do You Spell Unfair? will be published April 11 2023.

Read the full review here

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Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom (Holiday House) by Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon has been selected for the 2023 Rise: A Feminist Book Project Booklist.

Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18 has been promoting quality feminist literature for young readers since 2002 as a part of the Feminist Task Force and the Social Responsibilities Round Table.

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Keisha Morris’s cover for Words of Wonder (Doubleday) by Zaila Avant-garde is featured on people.com. Avant-garde was the 2021 winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The book will be published June 27, 2023.

See the article here

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Canada’s Corus Entertainment has greenlit a CG-animated series based on author Ashley Spires’ book The Most Magnificent Thing (Kids Can Press) and a same-name 2019 short film for its Treehouse preschool channel.

Millie Magnificent (52 x 11 minutes) features the book’s namesake protagonist taking on kid-sized challenges in the neighborhood with her friends and pet dog using STEAM-based skills and creative problem-solving.

Read more about it here

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Jump In! (Bloomsbury), Shadra Strickland’s debut author illustrated picture book, has been named a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Read more about it here

Jump In! will be published January 31, 2023. Pre order it here

Black Gold (HarperCollins) by Laura Obuobi, illustrated by London Ladd is a NAACP Image Award Nominee as Outstanding Literary Work- Children.

The Awards Ceremony will be televised on BET, Saturday February 25th at 8:00 EST.

See the full list of nominees here

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Congratulations London!

Booklist calls Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar (Doubleday) by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow a “pitch-perfect-picture-book biography” and says that “This upbeat, harmonious portrait of the “Godmother of Rock and Roll” as a child hits all the right notes.”

Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar will be published February 28, 2023. Pre order it here

See the full review in the February 1 issue of Booklist.

Uncle John’s City Garden (Holiday House) by Bernette Ford, illustrated by Frank Morrison has been named a Blue Ribbon Book by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

See the full list of Blue Ribbon Books here

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In a review of A Crown for Corina (Little Brown) by Laekan Zea Kemp, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri, Publishers Weekly says “Highlighting seasonal cycles and the natural passage of time, it’s a lushly told story that emphasizes the role of the past in the present and future: when Corina asks Abuela why their family wears crowns, she replies that “when we place la corona on our head, we become its roots, reaching back through time to hold on to the things that matter.”

See the full review here

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Everything in its Place (DoubleDay) by Pauline David-Sax, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow was featured recently in a New York Times article on the appeal and importance of endpapers in picture books.

Read the article here

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